BEER could be used to bait an exotic ant to sterilise its queen and turn the colony into zombies.

The browsing ant was discovered feasting on the yeast and sugar of broken beer bottles at the Port of Darwin at East Arm by vigilant wharfies in July.

The wharfies reported the unusual find, prompting the introduction of a multiple government detector sniffer dog program.

The browsing ant poses a substantial threat to the food chain of native animals and may have originated from East Timor.

Primary Industry Minister Willem Westra van Holthe introduced three-year-old labrador detector dog Willow as a potential weapon against the pest and was not surprised at how the exotic ants were discovered.

“Most ants are attracted to liquids or moisture so it is possible ants will be found around beer bottles,” he said. “Who doesn’t like a beer on a hot day?”

Mr van Holthe said people needed to be vigilant in identifying these pests. “If these browsing ant colonies were to expand across the Northern Territory they would pose a significant risk to our native fauna, particularly in the insect world,” he said. “They form super colonies with multiple queens. We’ve had to move quickly to deal with this.”

So far the browsing ant has been found in four locations, all at the port.

Willow is trained in the detection of fire ants in Queensland but will also be trained in the odour detection of the browsing ants. Australia is the first country to use sniffer dogs in this way.

The national director of the Fire and Electric Ant eradication program, Sarah Corcoran, said Willow would be trained to detect browsing ants in Queensland before returning to the Territory.

“The bait being used is an insect growth regulator,’’ Ms Corcoran said.

“The ants, when they are foraging, pick up the bait and feed it to the queen.

“Eventually she becomes sterile and stops producing the eggs. But the colonies don’t realise the effect and the ants end up like the walking dead.’’

Originally published as Zombie Aussie ants lured by beer