Australia will need to find at least an extra half a billion dollars to eliminate fire ants as the super pest continues its invasive march south.
The additional $593 million commonwealth-state funding requirement is identified in an audit report by Biosecurity Queensland, which oversees a national eradication program.
But the money is still well short of what a recent review found was needed to kill off the pest.
An expert panel concluded that while efforts had slowed the ants, they had failed to eliminate or contain them under the program's current scope and budget. In short, they say "a change in strategy is urgently needed".
The panel found at least $3 billion would need to be pumped into the task over the next five years if Australia was to rid itself of fire ants in time for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
While the Biosecurity Queensland report was compiled in 2021, its findings were only released in June.
Reece Pianta from the Invasive Species Council describes the delay as scandalous.
"It needed to be available to the public years ago given the urgency of its recommendations," he says.
Mr Pianta says the dire need to eradicate fire ants has been met by a series of half measures which have allowed them to march ever closer to NSW and what happens next will be critical.
"They're on the doorstep of another jurisdiction," he says. "If we are going to have a boost of resources, it needs to happen right now.
"I describe it often as worse than the cane toad because it is so aggressive and pervasive and can harm humans and wildlife in so many ways."
As the nation's agriculture ministers meet on Thursday, how to stop fire ants spreading will be the burning issue on their agenda.
Fire ants are considered one of the world's most invasive species. Native to South America the stinging, swarming pest poses a serious risk to agriculture, public health and native environments.
They've been in Australia since 2001 when they were found in Brisbane.
A series of biosecurity measures including restrictions on soil movement and baiting had largely contained the ant to Queensland's southeast.
But they're on the move.
Detections in May just 10km from the NSW border has authorities and experts worried, not least because Queen fire ants can fly up to 30km and raft down rivers.
Their colonies produce large mounds in open areas where they aggressively feed mostly on young plants, insects and seeds but often also attack, and can kill, small animals.
When they bite humans, fire ants inject a toxic alkaloid venom called solenopsin that triggers a painful sting similar to a burn. For some, the episode can be deadly.
They're also renowned for their ability to survive extreme weather and, unfortunately, they don't hibernate.
If fire ants reach NSW the problems they bring with them fall into another level of government handling.
Central Queensland University research predicts the toll on agriculture would be huge, with yields decimated.
The 2021 study reveals fire ants would halve the yields of cereals and pulses and wipe out 40 per cent of sunflower and other oilseed crops.
The research was also part of the eradication plan's review.
National Farmers' Federation President Fiona Simson says the damage an uncontrolled population of fire ants would unleash on Australia is too big to contemplate.
"We've seen what's happened in other countries where whole tracts of land have become unusable because of this pest," she says.
Although authorities are still confident eradication is possible, failing to control the ants would cost an estimated $2 billion annually and generate up to 140,000 medical consultations and 3000 anaphylactic reactions.
Some $411 million was set aside under a 10-year plan approved by all Australian governments in 2017.
Then, in June, Queensland committed $61 million in new money and NSW promised $80 million.
"We've made a big commitment this week to demonstrate our how serious this is for NSW ... we don't want them to cross the Queensland border," NSW Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty tells AAP.
She now wants other jurisdictions to follow suit when they meet in Perth on Thursday.
A spokesperson from the national fire ant eradication program says a new response plan and funding proposal has been developed but just how much they want, they haven't said.
