Nader Peard

Age: 13

From Kuranda, Qld

Why do you volunteer? 

It is fun and I learn new skills in the things I am interested in, like ants.  I know it is good for my community.  It helps the wildlife.

How did you get involved?

I saw an advertisement for the Yellow Crazy Ant Taskforce and knew it was important to get rid of them because they do so much damage to the wildlife.

How long have you been volunteering?

I think it may be about 4 years

What do you love about volunteering?

I love knowing that I am making a difference.  I love the things I learn and making new friends who feel the same about protecting wildlife.  I love that I learn how to use equipment and do fieldwork which is important.  It’s so much fun and interesting.  I even learned how to use a GPS.

Linden Henry found yellow crazy ants near his house in 2019 near Kuranda and shares some of his experiences with us here.

What did you first notice here at your property on Green Forest Road Kuranda?

I’ve had some experience in dealing with yellow crazy ants from visiting a previous outbreak in Cairns, so I knew what they look like. I was doing some mowing out the back of my property and overturned a few tree branches and the ants came pouring out of the ground. I was confident that they were yellow crazy ants, so I took a sample to the Wet Tropics Management Authority’s Yellow Crazy Ant Eradication Program office and had them identified just to make sure and it was a positive detection.

Tell me what your first experience was like and what you took away that later led to having yellow crazy ants in your own backyard?

A lot of people have a perception of ‘how bad can a few ants be?’ But when you see a major outbreak and see that everywhere you look—along the ground, in the trees—everything is covered in yellow crazy ants and then you do not see anything else—no birds, no spiders, no lizards—you realise it is bare of any other species, just yellow crazy ants. I remember thinking wow you wouldn’t want them in your house and then years later here we are: I have yellow crazy ants. The saving was that a fair bit of research had already occurred since the first detection of yellow crazy ants in Cairns, and they had been successfully detected, treated, and monitored nearby at Russett Park.

What message do you have for your community and other residents, people who may not know about yellow crazy ants that may live near or in an infestation area?

The main thing is to get familiar: know your enemy, know what they look like and don’t be blasé about them. Early detection is vital which means easier to eradicate a small infestation before growing into ever-increasing size and numbers. I had to wait for the surveys to be finalised before treatments commenced, and I did say I would take measures myself to protect the shed, house, and cars because I didn’t want them in the house or shed. Once treatments started amazingly the numbers decreased quite quickly. This was after four treatments each year for two years. This year they did a survey and brought their odour detection dog out to have a sniff around and didn’t find any more. It is like most pests: you need to have that follow up. Eradication is difficult if you drop your guard, so monitoring should be everyone’s responsibility. It’s in the landowner’s best interest not to leave it up to a handful of other people to keep checking their properties. Know what you are dealing with so you can keep an eye out for them. Once you have an eye for them, you soon pick them up differently from the native varieties. Take time to get to know them.

 Full interview coming soon here: https://communitytaskforce.org.au/