• By LISA TOLLIVER
• Kentucky Agricultural News

Bait had accidently been dropped off at Kentucky food bank.

Six pallets of fire ant bait were loaded onto a semi-truck at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) recently for the first leg of its trip to the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce. A KDA employee’s problem solving skills and network contacts made the trip possible.

KDA acquired the bait from a food bank in Morehead. Through a shipping error or a communication mishap, the pallets had spent more than a year in the food bank’s warehouse after mistakenly being dropped off with a regular food donation from a national retailer.

Wanting to get back its warehouse space and not knowing what to do with the ant bait, the food bank contacted the KDA’s Division of Environmental Services. After the Division made calls to determine neither the retailer nor the bait manufacturer wanted the product back, KDA took possession of the 12,000 pounds of ant bait.

KDA initially planned to destroy the bait through the traditional Chemical Collection Program. Instead KDA employee John Pitcock found an agriculture department counterpart in Mississippi, a state where fire ants are abundant, that gladly agreed to take the bait and arrange for shipping. The Mississippi Department of Agriculture has plans to distribute the fire ant bait to its constituents.

The shipment left KDA warehouses March 1, en route to its new Mississippi home.