NEWPORT BEACH : Ant Army Invades Ritzy Island Homes

Residents on posh Linda Isle may not yet realize it, but they are sharing their ritzy address with the first black-headed ants to come to California.

The pinhead-size, tropical creatures, which pose more nuisance than harm, evaded state inspectors, and their presence is growing.

“How they got to Linda Isle is anyone’s guess,” said Nick Nisson, entomologist at the county agricultural commissioner’s office. “There’s thousands of ways they could have come in.”

The ants are typically found in tropical climates, such as parts of Central America and the Caribbean. In the United States, they live in Hawaii and Florida.

They are often intercepted in commerce shipments, hiding in cool, dark places and feeding as scavengers on almost any food, with a preference toward sweets.

An informal county investigation of homes on the island shows that two more houses have become infested with the ants since the first case was reported by a private pest controller working at a home in October.

Nisson said the county is trying to determine whether the ants have spread to other parts of the county, adding that the bugs often go undetected because they are so tiny, measuring about 1 1/2 millimeters. A typical ant found in California is a little more than double that size.

“We’d like to know if it’s just there in Linda Isle or elsewhere in the county,” he said. “If someone does think they have an ant like this, if they could take a few minutes to mail us a specimen or drop one by our office, we’d really like to take a look.”

The creatures are virtually harmless, as they pose no agricultural or health threats and have no stingers. But they are likely to become bothersome as residents try to rid their bay-side estates of the unwanted house guests.

County officials lament that pesticides are nearly the only sure way of ridding a home of the bugs and say that the increased use of poisons to kill them is one of the biggest problems to arise from the ants getting into the state.

“It’ll lead to an increased use of pesticides,” Nisson said. “Any time you can prevent an unnecessary or additional use of pesticides, it’s a good thing. That’s why it’s important to keep these (ants) out.”

But ant expert Roy Nelling, collections manager for the entomology section at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, said a bigger problem is demonstrated by the bugs’ ability to sneak past inspectors.

“The mere fact that we have this ant, that’s proof that the state has been lax in . . . quarantine procedures, because these things have been getting through,” Nelling said. “What we need is to tighten up on inspection procedures. The inspectors should have found these things.”