On Saturday, January 20, red fire ants were discovered at a property at Wardell after being detected in South Murwillumbah in late November.

Lismore has a crucial role to play in identifying any red fire ant nests in Northern NSW through local company, ReconEco.

The reason the state government is spending $80 million to keep fire ants out of NSW is the long-term damage the aggressive, invasive species can have on livestock, infrastructure and ecosystems as well as the extremely painful, burning stings to humans.

Craig Faulkner runs ReconEco from his Magellan Street office with eight employees and three detection dogs, Jet, Candy and Olive.

The three Springer Spaniels range in age and experience with Jet leading the way at nine years, Candy a young 8-month-old Springer in training and Olive was only picked up from Adelaide last week and will be in work once she acclimatises.

ReconEco didn't start as a red fire ant business, it has evolved to include that field of detection and is part of the company's evolution.

Craig is a 20-year experienced ecologist and with a former business partner established ReconEco 12 years ago. They now have four ecologists on the team.

In the early days, the team were doing flora and fauna surveys for councils and state government departments like Transport for NSW.

"We'll do environmental assessments of their proposed road upgrades and new infrastructure projects for councils," Craig explained.

ReconEco likes to "think out of the square" and part of the company's evolution was the introduction of a detection dog for koala surveys before branching out to feral species such as rabbits and rats.

"I particularly like dogs and I like the idea of working with dogs so we decided to branch out and get our first piece of heavy equipment because it is akin to an earthmover buying a new excavator or something like that."

"After Googling a few names and talking to a few people we ended up talking to Steve Austin, a very famous conservation dog trainer who was integral in ridding rats and rabbits from Macquarie Island and returning it to the fantastic pristine sort of beautiful environment that it should be."

"Steve supplied Jet to us who was initially imprinted on Koala and then later on with fox and feral cats as well. We had a strong side interest in feral animal management and control mostly around our interest in threatened species."

When Lismore had NSW's first infestation of yellow crazy ants in 2018, Craig could see the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and Local Land Services meeting in a car park across the road and thought detection dogs could help in their detection.

"I was sitting at my desk one day and I thought that's got to be a good job for a detection dog. Imagine how much easier it would be with a dog trained on yellow crazy ants."

"So, I called Steve Austin and asked if we could imprint Jet and another dog with yellow crazy ant and he said no problem, for sure. We then did a deal with DPI doing presence and absence surveys for yellow crazy ants here locally as well as fly to East Arnhem Land for CSIRO and Rio Tinto to do a big program with them on yellow crazy ants too."

Jet has now been imprinted for red fire ants and has been in action in Wardell and further north as the DPI looks to stamp out red fire ants in NSW.

Jet wears a tracking collar and Craig said he will cover about 20km per day and about 15km in summer with the start of the day being in the early morning.

Craig explained that the red fire ants were discovered in a raised garden bed at the Wardell POD Village and the tracking of the red fire ants is like a complex spider web of leads that need to be followed.

"It could come in mulch or soil that's come from a provider like sand and gravel place or something, or maybe our local supply has got their supplies from across the border where it's been infested and they've got it here and they send it there and then they send it there and then they send it there. You don't really know."

"It could have been an associated property. So, you've got the soil that's been imported into the garden, where did this all come from? And you've got the plants in the garden that could have come in with the plants in the soil with the plants. So, where did the plants for the garden come from? And then you've got the timber surrounds and the garden, so they could have come in on the timber. Where did the timber come from?"

"It gets really complicated and convoluted. That's why they have asked us to go around to all these different places that have received fresh mulch or fresh turf that's come from somewhere. We might go to lots of sand and gravel places and quarries with the dogs to help check to see if we can find anything."

Craig and Jet allowed the Lismore App to record a training session at Blair Oval which you can view below. Jet is not motivated by food but by chasing a ball. Craig hid an imprinted toy on the oval for Jet to find.

Red fire ants are a huge potential problem in Northern NSW. Craig and the team at ReconEco are helping keep the red fire ants at bay and hopefully out of NSW permanently.

ABOUT FIRE ANTS

Fire ants feed on insects, spiders, lizards, frogs, birds, and mammals.

They can displace or kill off Australian plants and animals and change environments beyond repair. Many agricultural and horticultural crops can be affected by fire ants increasing the cost of production and supply of goods and services. Fire ant nests can also damage equipment such as irrigation systems and machinery.

Livestock can be stung by fire ants. Stinging around the eyes, mouth, and nose can cause suffocation and blindness. They can also prevent animals from reaching food and water leading to starvation and dehydration.

Animals that spend time outdoors are at risk, particularly if they graze or like to dig as fire ants tend to swarm the faces of pets and grazing animals, nose-first. Infestations of fire ants restrict the use of backyards, parks, playgrounds, beaches and sports fields.

Fire ants can also cause damage to sensitive electrical equipment like meter boxes, traffic lights and air conditioners by chewing through the insulation, causing malfunction.