Fire Ants Discovered in Nursery’s Plants
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SOUTH EL MONTE — The fire ants have arrived in Los Angeles County.
A South El Monte nursery worker found ants infesting potted plants in his nursery Monday and took the stinging insects to a county scientist.
The plants had been purchased from an Orange County nursery recently found to be infested by the ants, which have become a scourge in 11 Southern states. They can swarm humans by the thousands, biting and stinging in occasionally lethal attacks.
Robert Donley, deputy director of Los Angeles County’s agricultural department, said the ants do not appear to have spread from the three-acre South El Monte site.
He said state workers would eradicate the ants from the location and that the county is testing six other businesses that bought plants from the infested nursery.
