Agricultural officials gave assurances on Monday that strict quarantine and control measures are in place to keep the red fire ant from spreading across the country.

"The red fire ant is a harmful species that can be prevented and controlled," said Wang Shoucong, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture's crop production department.

Red fire ants have recently been identified in southern China's Guangdong Province and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

Wu Xiaoling, from the plant protection and quarantine division of Wang's department, said the ministry issued a notice on January 17, listing the ant among species banned from entry into the country and from transport within it.

Guangdong has strengthened quarantine of products such as soil, seedlings and flowers, Wang said.

The province is an important production base of agricultural products such as flowers and vegetables. Large amounts are transported from the province to Hong Kong, Macao and foreign countries.

The ants, belonging to the species Solenopsis invicta, are indigenous to South America, but spread to the US in the 1930s and to Australia in 2001. They can cause serious agricultural losses and are more aggressive than other ants.

They can harm the root, stem, leaf and fruit of crops, and build nests near houses and in electrical apparatus and dams.

Wang said that international experience shows the ants can be controlled and even eradicated, and that experts and agricultural departments have mastered control techniques and have sufficient reserves of pesticide for killing them.

According to Chinese Academy of Sciences expert Zhang Runzhi, the ant is one of the world's top 100 harmful invasive species.

A sting from one of them can be painful for a long time, and a small proportion of people are allergic, he said, adding that in the US, about 2 percent of people stung become allergic.

It was reported yesterday that a public housing estate in the north of the HKSAR's New Territories became the first residential area to be infested with the ants.

A newly formed advisory group comprising officials and local scientists will meet as early as today to formulate a strategy to stamp out the insects there.

The number of red fire ant mounds in Hong Kong increased by 83 to a total of 282 as of Monday. Agricultural officials said most of the mounds had been destroyed.

(China Daily February 1, 2005)