An ant species that forms huge supercolonies and infests gardens and parks is marching rapidly across Europe and will soon invade the UK, according to entomologists who are monitoring its spread. The colonies can swell to 10 or 100 times the size of those of common garden ants and scientists warn that they can cause significant damage to plants. "When I saw this ant for the first time, I simply could not believe there could be so many garden ants in the same lawn," says Prof Jacobus Boomsma at the University of Copenhagen, one of its co-discoverers almost 20 years ago. "We reckon it’s only a matter of time before [it invades the UK]." The invasive garden ant or Lasius neglectus was first identified in 1990 when it was found infesting an entire neighbourhood in Budapest, Hungary. "This ant basically looks like the garden ant that everybody knows, so you don’t really become suspicious if you see a few of those crawling around because they are everywhere," he said. It has since become a major pest in central Europe and has spread as far as Jena in Germany, Ghent in Belgium and Warsaw in Poland.
‘Super ants’ threaten UK gardens, scientists warn
