Japan’s secret weapon against invaders from Hong Kong, China: flaming wasabi
HONG KONG — Scientists in Japan have discovered a new weapon that could be deployed in the battle against fire ants that are infesting the country: spicy wasabi.
A large-scale invasion of fire ants is known to decimate local insect populations.
HONG KONG — Scientists in Japan have discovered a new weapon that could be deployed in the battle against fire ants that are infesting the country: spicy wasabi.
Fire ants, which are native to South America, are a venomous breed of ants whose bites can induce anaphylactic shock, and in extreme cases, death.
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The government is desperate for ideas to stop the venomous, invasive and quick-breeding insects from further multiplying ever since they found their way into Japan via shipping containers three years ago.
Port officials in Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe and Nagoya discovered colonies in containers imported from Hong Kong, mainland China and Southeast Asia in the summer of 2017.
A queen fire ant can produce as many as 1,600 eggs in a single day and the insects can grow up to 6mm long. It is feared that a large-scale invasion of fire ants could decimate local insect populations.
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Researchers at the University of Hyogo have taken up the task of finding ways of keeping fire ants at bay and, in a series of experiments conducted in Taiwan, found that they do not have a taste for wasabi – more often found accompanying sushi.
The scientists extracted allyl isothiocyanate (AITC), the compound that is responsible for the eye-watering flavour of wasabi, and impregnated it into sheets of material that were baited and placed close to a fire ant nest.
After 40 minutes, none of the ants had set foot on the material that had been laced with wasabi, although they had not been deterred from walking across sheets that had no wasabi.
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To verify the results of the experiment, the scientists then placed the wasabi-coated material on top of a number of ants, killing them all.
In a paper for the journal of the Japanese Society of Applied Entomology and Zoology, Professor Yoshiaki Hashimoto said he intends to work on developing ways in which this knowledge can be applied to products that can be used to stop fire ants from spreading.
One way of doing that might be to places strips of wasabi-coated material around or inside shipping containers. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
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