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Swarming Ants Destroy Electronics in Texas

Posted by timothy on from the where's-tiny-ender-when-you-need-him dept.

AntOverlords writes "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. They have ruined pumps at sewage pumping stations, fouled computers and at least one homeowner's gas meter, and caused fire alarms to malfunction. They have been spotted at NASA's Johnson Space Center and close to Hobby Airport, though they haven't caused any major problems there yet."

23 of 328 comments (clear)

  1. Everytime something like this happens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... I'm impressed, by how fast we could be the losing species on this planet.

    Imagine a plague that we can't control, originating from such an incident. Small swarming animals are very much in advantage here because there is no big target that we could hit, and because they can reproduce in a more flexible way.

    Maybe we should think a bit more about our existence than being arrogant and making "I, for one..." jokes. ;)

  2. Invasive Species by tetrahedrassface · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Yet another fine example of invasive species coming to the mainland on improperly inspected container cargo.

    Fire ants, Killer bees, Chestnut blight, Dutch Elm Disease, Sudden Oak Death (all invasive and here because of lax monitoring).

    No natural predators I bet, and not big news until they spread out across the U.S and degrade the living conditions in your area.

    The US should really have much more stringing inspections of container shipping. We can send a man to the moon but not inspect cargo. right?

    We rely on cheap goods as imports but fail to take into account the true cost of invasive species control. It is huge.

    1. Re:Invasive Species by dnwq · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Of course we can inspect cargo. It's just more expensive to do so. Which is greater, the cost of dealing with invasive species or the cost of preventing their entry? Even a minor accident can nullify everything spent on prevention, so inspections must be designed to very very strict tolerances - invulnerable to bribery, bureaucratic laziness, tourists sneaking pets across, etc. Are you really sure you want to spend more on the latter?

    2. Re:Invasive Species by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Why do you think Killer bees came in containers?
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee

    3. Re:Invasive Species by Richard+Steiner · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If you're gonna be pedantic, even the original humans in the Americas came from elsewhere. :-)

      --
      Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
      The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
  3. And your solution is? by Kupfernigk · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Ban imports?

    Go and look at a container ship, then tell me how you propose to inspect it. Have you any idea how many inspectors would be needed, or how long it would take?

    Actually, ants are the least of your worries. It's been pointed out by security specialists that container ships are an ideal way for terrorists to bring in the parts of nuclear weapons. While they're pretending to make things safe at airports, there's a 20-lane superhighway wide open into almost all developed countries, consisting of uninspectable shipping containers and artic trailers. Bomb parts can have their radiation reduced to background levels easily enough, put them in a container full of auto parts and nothing will detect them.

    It's one world, for good or bad, and we have to live with it. Blaming foreigners is unlikely to be productive. These things are a cost that we bear because we no longer live in isolated tribal groups or city states, with an average GNP per head of about 600 1980 dollars, or whatever the last estimate was.

    Realistically, even a 15kt bomb being exploded by terrorists in the middle of NY or Boston would do less harm to civilisation than natural causes do from time to time, and these ants are equally unlikely to do severe long term damage.

    --
    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
    1. Re:And your solution is? by Corporate+Troll · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Realistically, even a 15kt bomb being exploded by terrorists in the middle of NY or Boston would do less harm to civilisation than natural causes do from time to time,

      Yes, but try saying that about 9/11 and see what reactions you'll get by most people. The difference, apparently, is intent. I don't get it either, but 3000 people killed by a bunch of madmen is somehow worse that 15000 to 40000 people killed by a natural catastrophe. Heck, the 2004 Tsunami "only" claimed 225000 people.

      On the other hand, with a population of over 8 million people, a nuclear bomb isn't even in the same ballpark as the above mentioned earthquake. An unannounced nuclear attack on NYC is going to dwarf regular natural disasters. (Ignoring supervolcanoes and meteor impacts)

      For reference: 10 deadliest natural disasters

    2. Re:And your solution is? by failedlogic · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But they can still cause a problem - though not to the epic proportions of a NCB weapon could. Wether the port city is small or large where the goods are usually imported for consumption by other cities there are a finite number of people in that city, and a much larger number of people to distribute the goods to in other cities. You're never going to be able to inspect 100% of the goods coming in, unless everyone in the port city is a customs inspector.

      Critters and insects still post a problem:
      Bugs and other critters are something we don't think about being a nuisance in most of North America because it generally impacts the southern US the most. At the least, as a Canadian, I only have to worry about mosquitos in the summer. Not a colony of electorphilic ant colonies killing my air conditioner and computer. That being said, insects and critters can still ruin a good day for anyone, particularly as we import goods from other countries. Its happened more than a few times in Canada where a venomous spider, scorpion and a few other nasties have shown up in the grocery store with the bananas or in someone's grocery bag.

    3. Re:And your solution is? by drooling-dog · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually, ants are the least of your worries. It's been pointed out by security specialists that container ships are an ideal way for terrorists to bring in the parts of nuclear weapons.

      Worse yet, The Terrorists are right now working on transporter beams that they will surely use to wreak havoc all around us. Our only hope to combat this threat is to completely forfeit what remains of our civil liberties and tithe ever more of our incomes to the burgeoning security partnership of government and industry, whose only interest is vigilance for our protection.

      It also wouldn't hurt to invade another country or two.

    4. Re:And your solution is? by Intron · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "What if they had managed to land in the datacenter of a major financial institution?"

      Then some rich people would lose some money while a bunch of other rich people would make some.

      "What if it were a nuclear power plant supplying electricity to millions of homes?"

      Oh my gosh. Power might go off for 2 days while the problem was sorted out. Do you remember the ice storm in Canada in 1998? Didn't think so.

      --
      Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
    5. Re:And your solution is? by PeanutButterBreath · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Have you any idea how many inspectors would be needed, or how long it would take? Too bad we don't have millions of people out of work. Heck, if there were zillions more trying to get into this country to work hard for low pay, we'd really be in business.

      Its ridiculous how many problems this country could solve by utilizing the human resources that are currently sitting fallow. All because we stubbornly hold out for some high tech solution. We would literally rather watch our bridges collapse and live with the possibility of nuclear terrorism rather than do things the old fashioned way (i.e. the way that this country was built in the first place).

      Actually, ants are the least of your worries. True. And the nukes don't rate that highly either. Neither worries me as much as the way that apathy increasingly passes for wisdom.
    6. Re:And your solution is? by eth1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      9/11 didn't "just" kill 3000 people. It also caused the erosion of rights and privacy for an additional 300 million, and triggered two wars.

    7. Re:And your solution is? by Corporate+Troll · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, it triggered only one war. The war on Afghanistan, the other one is in fact unrelated. As far as the erosion of rights and privacy: well, we allowed it, didn't we? ("You", actually, since I'm not a US citizen) Why weren't you on the street protesting to protect your rights? Why aren't you actively fighting to retain and reclaim your rights and privacy? Ranting on slashdot doesn't really count, you know.

      I know it's cliché, but by allowing the government to take away your rights, you let the terrorists win.

    8. Re:And your solution is? by Phroggy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      While Iraq had no connection to the attacks on 9/11/01, such a connection was fabricated later. The Bush administration could never have persuaded the American people to support invading Iraq if the 9/11 attacks hadn't occurred.

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
    9. Re:And your solution is? by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I pointed out that the headcount of a exceptional terrorist attack (9/11) is way lower than the headcount of a exceptional natural disaster.

      Heck, the headcount of an exceptional terrorist attack (9/11) is lower than the number of people who drown each year.

      And how about deaths from heart disease, or cancer? Bacon double cheeseburgers and lack of exercise are far more deadly to Americans than Al Qaeda.

      --
      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
  4. Re:Serious Problem by Vectronic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "...Ant are warm blooded [Citation Needed]..."

  5. Re:Thanks Rachel by Dekortage · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Right, because Rachel Carson must be a witch from hell itself for wanting to reduce pesticides that cause birth defects and death?

    --
    $nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
  6. Re:Locusts by OldeTimeGeek · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, "acts of God" refers to any loss that a warranty or an insurance company can weasel itself out of covering.

  7. Re:Thanks Rachel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Except DDT didn't. It was banned for political reasons only.

  8. Re:Phase IV? Anyone? by b1t+r0t · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I didn't think so, because of the lack of poison.

    And that's after actually thinking about Phase IV the other day when I crushed almost a dozen new fire ant queens within the space of about two hours.

    Anyhow, the only thing good about these "crazy ants" seems to be that they kill fire ants. That's it. I don't know if the trade-off is worth it. And I live in Texas, about 200-300 miles from Houston, so of course I hate fire ants with a passion.

    --

    --
    "Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
    "Open source is evil." - Microsoft
  9. Re:Thanks Rachel by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Tell that to the millions saved every year from malaria by DDT.

    --
    "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
  10. It's not 'gender' either by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I think Edwin Newman put it best:

    "Gender is a grammatical term - it is not a substitute for sex. ...But then, what is?"

  11. Re:First computer bug by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The note says "first actual case of a bug being found," so a) it doesn't use the phrase "computer bug" and b) it implies that bugs in the figurative sense had already been found in computers.

    In short, you fail it!