Ants swarm over Houston area, fouling electronics

by mtippett | May 14, 2008 at 12:42 pm

4521 views | 13 Recommendations | 69 comments

Should we be on the look out for 4 horsemen?

DALLAS - In what sounds like a really low-budget horror film, voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers.
The hairy, reddish-brown creatures are known as "crazy rasberry ants" — crazy, because they wander erratically instead of marching in regimented lines, and "rasberry" after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who did battle against them early on.

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Mikasi

at 13:58 on May 14th, 2008

... and there will be wars and rumors of wars

Barbara McPherson

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 18:24 on May 14th, 2008

mtippett, I like this story. It's good stuff. Maybe they came from a secret lab in Iran!

giuscescu

at 00:57 on May 15th, 2008

That little ant (less than 1 mm) seemed lost on this "Petit Lu", except this hole, where it came every 5 seconds !

giuscescu has contributed a photo to this story.

tclima

at 01:28 on May 15th, 2008

Weekend photo trip in Miranda do Douro (Portugal). Spring was the theme.

This ant was teasing me :)

tclima has contributed a photo to this story.

WorldWiseWisdom

at 02:09 on May 15th, 2008

Calblanque, Murcia, Spain. 2008

WorldWiseWisdom has contributed a photo to this story.

Andrew Robertson

at 03:14 on May 15th, 2008

I think this ant was following the rule of never eat more than you can carry!

Andrew Robertson has contributed a photo to this story.

Miss-D80

at 03:45 on May 15th, 2008

Ants cover a white peony flowering bush in North Carolina.

Miss-D80 has contributed a photo to this story.

nico50

at 04:04 on May 15th, 2008

I came back from work one evening and having had a hard day at work, all I wanted to do was to hold a cold cup of tea in my hand and enjoy the quiteness of my back yard. I was almost in a state of relexation when I felt a stinging sensation on the back of my neck, my initial response was to reach and rid myself of whatever it was that was causing me pain. With the urgency to clear the ant away from me I didn't realized that I had in fact crushed it.
Further observation of the area revealed that there were lots more of these ants running along the fence as though someone or something had up-set them. I then thought to myself, it would be interesting to photograph these little creatures in action. I then got my camera and started to photograph them, I made many shots varing the exposure and that's how this photo came about.

nico50 has contributed a photo to this story.

leorejoanne

at 04:05 on May 15th, 2008

Some ant trouble in our shower, been going on for a couple of weeks now, a line of ants keeps marching from under one of the drawers to around the sink and nothing seems to deter them.
I actually like it and always try not to drown them by mistake.

leorejoanne has contributed a photo to this story.

Goofy Girl Blog Pictures

at 04:11 on May 15th, 2008

An ant building a home

Goofy Girl Blog Pictures has contributed a photo to this story.

Minkah

at 04:15 on May 15th, 2008

The narcissus was covered by ants, something there was in that particular flower that seemed interesting.

Minkah has contributed a photo to this story.

shlurpee_meme

at 04:18 on May 15th, 2008

this doesnt look like it has any ants..:D

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mikeakelly

at 04:47 on May 15th, 2008

A small "Ant Den" left by children for the insects to enjoy in the UK.

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Francesco Amorosino

at 04:55 on May 15th, 2008

Ants are really everywhere...I was painting in Villa Borghese in Rome and...a couple of ants started to run in the middle of the colours...

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Eduardo Cespedes

at 05:37 on May 15th, 2008

This happened just at the bathroom of my house. Some small black dots on a piece of tile were moving relatively fast. When I got closer I discovered lots of ants carrying a dead spider.

Eduardo Cespedes has contributed a photo to this story.

krhodes

at 07:52 on May 15th, 2008

This is a picture from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower

chinny_chin_chin_charoo has contributed a photo to this story.

Maggie Osterberg

at 08:42 on May 15th, 2008

Sugar-seeking ants swarm around a TERRO Ant Killer bait trap in Lincoln, NE.

Maggie Osterberg has contributed a photo to this story.

Eemeez

at 09:04 on May 15th, 2008

Ant demolishing a spider web

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Paren

at 10:34 on May 15th, 2008

There was this winter morning and i was out to photograph flowers..and i was very nice activity from this ant..it was drinking water from dewdrops felt on the petals..it was wonderful site to capture :)

Paren has contributed a photo to this story.