Farmers are calling for a state border crackdown to stop the spread of dangerous fire ants into northern New South Wales.
Red imported fire ants were detected less than a month ago in NSW, having crossed the border from Queensland in a shipment of lawn turf.
Fire ants are spread across about 83,000 hectares in Queensland, including close to the NSW border.
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So far, all infestations discovered in NSW have been eradicated.
The pests can cause immense environmental damage and have no natural predators in Australia.
It's feared they could cause tens of billions of dollars in damage to Australia if left unchecked.
And their bites can potentially be fatal to humans.
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NSW Farmers Association biosecurity committee chair Tony Hegarty said it was clear the state government needed to take radical new action to protect communities and farmers from the potentially deadly pest.
"From round-the-clock border checkpoints to detection dogs monitoring state lines, all options need to be on the table to stop fire ants from blazing across the NSW border," Hegarty said.
"The Natural Resources Commission found that if fire ants were allowed to spread the costs could be $60 billion over 30 years to Australia – or $2.2 billion a year – meaning the cumulative combined damage would be half of that of the COVID shock in 2020-21."
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Hegarty said farmers were "fast losing faith" in the current biosecurity measures in place.
"People in the north of the state are pulling their hair out, this is a serious threat not just to farmers but to our very way of life," he said.
"The NSW Government must protect our state properly, rather than simply dealing with incursions when they arise."
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