Yeosu Gwangyang Port Authority Takes Measures to Block Red Imported Fire Ant Invasion

Proactive Disinfection to Prevent Additional Inflow Including Yard Cleaning and Pesticide Spraying

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Heo Seonsik] Yeosu Gwangyang Port Authority (President Cha Minsik) announced on the 20th that it will take proactive pest control measures to prevent the habitation of red imported fire ants and block the additional influx of harmful organisms within Gwangyang Port.

At Gwangyang Port, two colonies of red imported fire ants were discovered last month on the 15th in the storage yard of Container Wharf 3-1 phase.

At that time, the authority, together with the operating company, conducted pest control and disinfection on 464 containers and the storage yard within a 50m radius of the discovery site.

Additionally, to prevent further influx, rapid preventive measures were taken, including installing more than 2,000 red imported fire ant monitoring traps throughout the storage yard in cooperation with related agencies.

Although terminal operators are responsible for pier disinfection, the authority took proactive administrative action to reduce the burden on operators facing economic difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to achieve high disinfection effectiveness through unified pest control measures across the entire container wharf.

The authority plans to carry out weeding and intensive pest control work targeting the entire container wharf for about two months from mid-August to October using its own budget to prevent the influx of harmful organisms.

Song Kyungjun, Director of the Logistics Strategy Office, stated, “Even after the intensive pest control, we plan to conduct pest control and disinfection at least once a week targeting the jurisdictional wharves and establish a cooperative system with related agencies such as the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency to actively respond to prevent the influx and spread of invasive harmful organisms.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.