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Scourge in the Mediterranean. Policies Against the Argentine Ant in the First Half of the 20th Century

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Histories of Bioinvasions in the Mediterranean

Part of the book series: Environmental History ((ENVHIS,volume 8))

Abstract

The Argentine ant ( Linepithema humilis ) is a Neotropical species from the Paraná River basin in central South America which has been spread unintentionally through human commerce from the nineteenth century onwards. It was soon recognised as an urban and plant pest and, more recently, as a threat to biodiversity in many of the places it has been introduced. This chapter analyses the causes of and motivations for controlling this species in Portugal , Spain , France and Italy in the first half of the twentieth century, describing and comparing legal and administrative measures among countries. Containment (in France ), fight (in Italy ) and eradication (in Portugal ) were laid down in mandatory regulations dated from the 1920s, but none of these three aims were achieved. Despite a long history of control efforts, Argentine ants remain in Southern Europe and other invaded areas, where people still strive to control them.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A collective term for four archipelagos in the North Atlantic Ocean west of the continents of Africa and Europe.

  2. 2.

    Wherever non-English literature is quoted, the translations are the author’s. Herein, the word “men” refers to humans.

  3. 3.

    corresponding to $320,000 on that date, according to the official exchange rate that had been established in 1949 by the system “Breton Woods” and remained stable until 1968 (McNamara 1998, pp. 72–75); in 2016, the comparable amount is $3,148,361.83 (Measuring Worth—Relative Worth Comparators and Data Setswebsite).

  4. 4.

    Trade name of the gamma isomer of the esacloro-cyclohexane, powerful synthesis insecticide that is obtained by chlorination of benzene.

  5. 5.

    Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Ministério da Agricultura, 2a incorporação.

  6. 6.

    Chlordane is a member of a group of chemical compounds generically termed “chlorinated cyclodienes.”

  7. 7.

    The first successful eradication in the Tiritiri Island (New Zealand) was recently announced: “after many years of annually reducing the population by 99%, an incredibly successful control program but still 1% short of total eradication, scientists from the New Zealand Department of Conservation continued to refine their methodologies until it has now been three years since Argentine ants were last recorded on the Island” (Russell 2016).

  8. 8.

    See the Portuguese Decree-Law 565/99 of December 21 which regulates the introduction, detention and management of Invasive Alien Species and the Spanish Royal Decree 630/2013 of August 2, which regulates the Spanish Catalog of Invasive Alien Species.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by FCT—the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology [UID/HIS/04209/2013 and IF/00222/2013/CP1166/CT0001].

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  1. IHC—Institute of Contemporary History, NOVA-FCSH, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ana Isabel Queiroz

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  1. Ana Isabel Queiroz
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Correspondence to Ana Isabel Queiroz .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. IHC—Institute of Contemporary History, NOVA-FCSH, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ana Isabel Queiroz

  2. Department of Geography, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Simon Pooley

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Queiroz, A.I. (2018). Scourge in the Mediterranean. Policies Against the Argentine Ant in the First Half of the 20th Century . In: Queiroz, A., Pooley, S. (eds) Histories of Bioinvasions in the Mediterranean. Environmental History, vol 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74986-0_4

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