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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
A sign near the beach in Lanikai warned of little fire ants.
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Hawaii is being invaded! Not by a foreign power but by little fire ants, coconut rhinoceros beetles and brown tree snakes.
What should we do?
Being invaded means activating the National Guard to attack known infestations now. Does that sound silly?
The late U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye gave the Department of Agriculture federal money to inspect aircraft and cargo from Guam. It has worked (so far) with brown tree snakes, even as his Senate colleagues made fun of Inouye over money for snakes.
The Agriculture Department can’t do this alone, but we could solve this in a matter in a matter of months with trained National Guard troops checking reported sightings of fire ants, palm trees, and companies that produce garden mulch.
Or we could do nothing. We must act now if we want our kids to be safe in their neighborhoods, and parks with palm trees.
Creighton Goldsmith
Nuuanu
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