Overview

• Officials reported heavy ant activity at schools in Reinheim and Pfungstadt and at an adjacent cemetery, with final species confirmation pending expert review.
• Pest control teams applied hot-water, foam and bait treatments this week to eliminate colonies before classes resume.
• The ants build supercolonies of hundreds of thousands to millions of individuals that resist standard eradication methods.
• Previous outbreaks in Kehl, Baden-Württemberg, triggered power and internet outages by infiltrating technical infrastructure.
• Researchers link the invasion to imported Mediterranean potted plants and call for a national registry and tighter import inspections.