"Crazy Ant Invasion": Cause Texans to "Cry Uncle"

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I for one, Bow to our Ant Overlords!!

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uploaded by Barry ORegan

Certainly a case of the Environment fighting back, in Crazy Ants running rampant in Texas shorting out everything from Computers to Gas Lines.   Short of stomping on their Tiny Heads, conventional pesticides do not seem to work.  The Ants erratic behaviour running in all directions, seems to be a Stark Contrast of most Ants regimental behaviour and orderliness.  The Crazy Ants are said to Hail from the Carribean islands such as Haiti, may explain the Ants erratic versus regimental behaviour in what can only be "Ant Society Imitating Haitian Life".

Below is a companion piece link to MTippets story on this featured yesterday.

http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/ants-swarm-over-houston-area-fouling-electronics

The Associated Press

Voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area.CRAZY RASBERRY ANTS

The small, hairy, reddish-brown creatures are known by that name: "crazy," because they wander erratically instead of marching in lines, and "rasberry" after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who battled them early on.

They're formally known as "paratrenicha species near pubens."

SPREADINGThe ants, first spotted in Texas in 2002, have spread to five Houston-area counties – Harris, Brazoria, Galveston, Montgomery and Wharton. Scientists are not sure where the ants came from, but their cousins, commonly called crazy ants, are found in the Southeast and the Caribbean.

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWSThey eat fire ants, but they also like plants, feed on such beneficial insects as ladybugs and eat the hatchlings of the Attwater prairie chicken. They bite humans, though not with a stinger like fire ants.

ELECTRICAL DAMAGEThey are attracted to electrical equipment. Scientists don't know why. The ants have ruined pumps, fouled computers and caused fire alarms to malfunction.

NO CONTROLSExterminators say the ants – which are starting to emerge by the billions – appear to be resistant to over-the-counter ant killers.

RESEARCHThe Texas Department of Agriculture is working with Texas A&M researchers and the EPA on how to stop the ants.