Excerpt from NPR.org
After more than a decade, the terrorizing reign of the yellow crazy ant is over on the Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.
The nonnative invasive insect had been threatening ground-nesting seabirds on the atoll since at least 2010, nearly wiping out the island’s red-tailed tropicbird colony in just a few years and wreaking havoc on other seabirds. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday that its campaign to eradicate the insects has been a success.
“This has been such a Herculean effort by so many dedicated volunteers and staff for so many years,” Kate Toniolo, superintendent for the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, told NPR.
She added: “It’s so huge and we’re so excited to be able to say that the yellow crazy ant, which has been so detrimental to our seabird population, is just gone.”
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