Economic costs of invasive alien ants worldwide

Abstract

Invasive ants are amongst the most destructive and widespread invaders across the globe; they can strongly alter invaded ecosystems and are responsible for the loss of native ant species. Several studies have reported that invasive ants can also lead to substantial economic costs. In this study, we search, describe and analyse 1342 reported costs of invasive ants compiled in the InvaCost database. Economic costs, reported since 1930 for 12 ant species in 27 countries, totalled US$ 51.93 billion, from which US$ 10.95 billion were incurred, and US$ 40.98 billion were potential costs (i.e., expected or predicted costs). More than 80% of total costs were associated with only two species, Solenopsis invicta and Wasmannia auropunctata; and two countries, the USA and Australia. Overall, damage costs amounted to 92% of the total cost, mainly impacting the agriculture, public and social welfare sectors. Management costs were primarily post-invasion management (US$ 1.79 billion), with much lower amounts dedicated to prevention (US$ 235.63 million). Besides the taxonomic bias, cost information was lacking for an average of 78% of the invaded countries. Moreover, even in countries where costs were reported, such information was available for only 56% of the invaded locations. Our synthesis suggests that the global costs of invasive ants are massive but largely biased towards developed economies, with a huge proportion of underreported costs, and thus most likely grossly underestimated. We advocate for more and improved cost reporting of invasive ants through better collaborations between managers, practitioners and researchers, a crucial basis for adequately informing future budgets and improving proactive management actions of invasive ants.

A systematic examination of learning in the invasive antLinepithema humilereveals very rapid development of short and long-term memory

“…With increasing trade, and the concomitant breakdown of biogeographic barriers, invasive species are spreading globally (Mack and Lonsdale 2001;Mooney and Cleland 2001;Perrings et al 2005;Bates et al 2020). Invasive species are often economically damaging and ecologically devastating (Marbuah et al 2014;Escobar et al 2018;Angulo et al 2022), with invertebrates being amongst the most damaging invasive groups (Ricciardi 2015). Ants are especially effective at invading habitats outside their native range (Tsutsui and Suarez 2003), where they displace native species through competition and predation (Ness and Bronstein 2004;Abbott 2006;Matsui et al 2009).…”

Genetic divergence and aggressiveness within a supercolony of the invasive ant Linepithema humile

“…The spread of exotic invasive species constitutes one of the most serious threats to biodiversity (Dueñas et al 2021), bringing with it high economic impacts (Bradshaw et al 2021;Haubrock et al 2021;Angulo et al 2022). The introduction of exotic invasive species has greatly increased in the last decades due to market globalization and its synergy with climatic change (Galil et al 2007;Perrings et al 2010;Ramsfield et al 2016).…”

“…Invasive ants displace native species, alter ecosystem services (food web, recycling, pollination), protect species considered as pests (e.g. aphids), invade human installations, and transmit pathogens to other species, causing ecological costs valued at US$ 10.95 billion over the last 90 years (reviewed in Pedersen et al 2006;Baty et al 2020;Angulo et al 2022).…”

Genome-wide SNPs reveal the social structure and invasion pathways of the invasive tropical fire ant (Solenopsis geminata)

“…Despite being particularly useful to retrace the invasion history of invaders with low genetic diversity such as ants, RADseq has never been used to retrace global pathways of introduced ants to the best of our knowledge. Over 200 ant species are known to have established outside their native range with 31 species considered to have major environmental, economic, health, and social impacts (Angulo et al, 2022;Bertelsmeier et al, 2017;Gruber et al, 2022;Holway et al, 2002). Studies on the introduction history of global ant invaders using microsatellite markers and/or mitochondrial DNA gene sequences have all identified several main introduction pathways, but some population movements, especially between introduced populations, could not be reconstructed due to the low variability of the markers used in the ants' introduced range (Ascunce et al, 2011;Foucaud et al, 2010;Vogel et al, 2010).…”