Economic costs of invasive alien ants worldwide

El coste económico mundial de las hormigas invasoras

Elena Angulo (), Benjamin Hoffmann, Liliana Ballesteros-Mejia (), Ahmed Taheri, Paride Balzani, Alok Bang, David Renault (), Marion Cordonnier (), Céline Bellard (), Christophe Diagne, Danish Ahmed, Yuya Watari and Franck Courchamp ()
Additional contact information
Elena Angulo: ESE - Ecologie Systématique et Evolution - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Benjamin Hoffmann: CSIRO - Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [Australia]
Liliana Ballesteros-Mejia: ESE - Ecologie Systématique et Evolution - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Ahmed Taheri: UCD - Université Chouaib Doukkali
Paride Balzani: UniFI - Università degli Studi di Firenze = University of Florence = Université de Florence, Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters [University of South Bohemia] - University of South Bohemia, CENAKVA - South Bohemian Research Center of Aquaculture and Biodiversity of Hydrocenoses [University of South Bohemia] - Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters [University of South Bohemia] - University of South Bohemia
Alok Bang: Society for Ecology Evolution and Development
David Renault: ECOBIO - Ecosystèmes, biodiversité, évolution [Rennes] - UR - Université de Rennes - INEE-CNRS - Institut Ecologie et Environnement - CNRS Ecologie et Environnement - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - OSERen - Observatoire des sciences de l'environnement de Rennes - UR - Université de Rennes - INSU - CNRS - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers - UR2 - Université de Rennes 2 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, IUF - Institut universitaire de France - M.E.N.E.S.R. - Ministère de l'Education nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche
Marion Cordonnier: ESE - Ecologie Systématique et Evolution - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Céline Bellard: ESE - Ecologie Systématique et Evolution - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Christophe Diagne: ESE - Ecologie Systématique et Evolution - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Danish Ahmed: GUST - Gulf University for Science and Technology
Yuya Watari: FFPRI - Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute
Franck Courchamp: ESE - Ecologie Systématique et Evolution - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Invasive ants are amongst the most destructive and widespread invaders across the globe; they can strongly alter invaded ecosystems and are responsible for the loss of native ant species. Several studies have reported that invasive ants can also lead to substantial economic costs. In this study, we search, describe and analyse 1342 reported costs of invasive ants compiled in the InvaCost database. Economic costs, reported since 1930 for 12 ant species in 27 countries, totalled US dollars 51.93 billion, from which US dollars 10.95 billion were incurred, and US$ 40.98 billion were potential costs (i.e., expected or predicted costs). More than 80% of total costs were associated with only two species, Solenopsis invicta and Wasmannia auropunctata ; and two countries, the USA and Australia. Overall, damage costs amounted to 92% of the total cost, mainly impacting the agriculture, public and social welfare sectors. Management costs were primarily post-invasion management (US dollars 1.79 billion), with much lower amounts dedicated to prevention (US dollars 235.63 million). Besides the taxonomic bias, cost information was lacking for an average of 78% of the invaded countries. Moreover, even in countries where costs were reported, such information was available for only 56% of the invaded locations. Our synthesis suggests that the global costs of invasive ants are massive but largely biased towards developed economies, with a huge proportion of underreported costs, and thus most likely grossly underestimated. We advocate for more and improved cost reporting of invasive ants through better collaborations between managers, practitioners and researchers, a crucial basis for adequately informing future budgets and improving proactive management actions of invasive ants.

Keywords: Anoplolepis; Linepithema; Wasmannia; InvaCost; Monetary impacts; Formicidae (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03781179v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Biological Invasions, 2022, 24 (7), pp.2041-2060. ⟨10.1007/s10530-022-02791-w⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03781179

DOI: 10.1007/s10530-022-02791-w

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