Taipei Songshan Aiport said on Tuesday that the Red Imported Fire Ants (RIFAs) pose no threat to passengers or the ground crew. The fire ants have been seen at the airport for almost a year and have been a source of concern.
The city airport’s deputy director, Nei-shin Hsu explained, “We first discovered the ants last November. They have been active in the grass around the runways. Those red fire ants love to be near the heat. Since there are only lighting facilities in the grass areas, we checked those facilities following previous examples of other countries. We put protection measures into effect in December. Until now, we haven’t found any damage to the facilities.”
Hsu also said that the red fire ants won’t cause danger to passengers or the ground crew, because they are far away in the grassland.
But due to safety concerns, the airport still decided to set a budget of US$282,000 for eliminating the ants over the next two and a half years.
According to Taiwan’s RIFA Control Center, those ants came from Taoyuan along with the agricultural and horticultural equipment for the Flora Expo in 2010.