Free Lecture to Focus on Ant Management in Hawai‘i

Little fire ants are tiny red-orange ants one-sixteenth of an inch long, or about as long as a penny is thick, according to the University of Hawai‘i College of Tropical Agriculture web site.

The September Maunakea Speaker Series will feature a talk by Hawai‘i Ant Lab specialist Michelle Montgomery about ant management on Hawai‘i Island.

“Managing Ants on the Big Island: How to Keep the Beasts at Bay” will be presented on Thursday, Sept. 20, beginning at 7 p.m. at UH Hilo’s Science and Technology Building room 108. The lecture is free to attend.

Montgomery has a degree from UH Hilo in Agriculture Crop Protection and has worked for various federal research facilities within Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park and Hilo during the last 10 years.

As a specialist for the Hawai‘i Ant Lab, Montgomery will lead a discussion on ants with additional attention to Little Fire Ants (LFA), one of the worst pests affecting local residents and agriculture. She will also discuss other types of invasive ants in the islands and how they impact people and the environment, and how to control them.

The monthly scholar-focused Maunakea Speaker Series is organized by the Office of Maunakea Management, ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, and University of Hawai‘i at Hilo’s Department of Physics & Astronomy.