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Texas Makes Zombie Fire Ants
eldavojohn writes "What do you do when a foreign species has been introduced to your land from another continent? Bring over the natural predator from the other continent. Scientists in Texas have introduced four kinds of phorid flies from South America to fight fire ants. These USDA approved flies dive bomb ants and lay an egg inside the ant. The maggot hatches and eats away juicy tender delicious ant brain until the ant is nothing more than a zombie that wanders around for two weeks before the head falls off and the ant dies. A couple of these flies will cause the ants to modify their behavior and this will be a very slow acting solution to curb the $1 billion in damage these ants do to Texas cattle ranches and — oddly enough — electrical equipment like circuit breakers. You may remember zombifying parasites hitting insects like cockroaches."
I for one welcome our new Zombie Fire Ant overlords.
You call this a zombie apocalypse? This ain't nothing compared to the zombie attack of 57.
My first thought was "Why does Texas need a zombie to terminate the employment of ants, and how did they get a job in the first place?"
Then I realized, this is Texas, afterall.
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
This is what those environmentalists should be doing. Using nature against nature in ways that can help man.
---Hank Hill of Arlen, TX
Skinner: Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas!
Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
More
Zombies are never the answer. Oh wait. Zombie ant overlords? That's totally different.
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
Richard Dawkins talks about ants doing this kind of stuff in his book: The Selfish Gene.
It's an awesome book to read if you want to learn more about the world you're living in and also reasoning behind a lot of human behaviour.
Time zone converter
Way to fuck over the native ants, Texas. Not to mention any other unpredictable side-effects, which, when talking about introduced species, are /ALWAYS BAD/.
Too true.
Exhibit A: American colonials
Yep, you may have heard of the cane toads we have here in Australia. They were introduced to kill off cane beetles - well, there's been more than a few side effects of that particular decision.
Of course, you've just introduced a bug that drills itself into animals' brains and eats them, without killing the animal itself till some time later. How could that possibly go wrong?
"These are very slow acting," Plowes said. "It's more like a cumulative impact measured across a time frame of years. It's not an immediate silver bullet impact."
Well of course there's no silver bullet impact for zombie fire ants, but if we need to get rid of some werewolf fire ants, the silver bullets might do the trick!
Your quote:
Introducing foreign species, even to battle other foreign species /NEVER WORKS/.
I'm not sure about never but there are often unforeseen consequences. Even Looney Toons had a classic cartoon on this.
In some cases, biological pest control can have unforeseen negative results that could outweigh all benefits. For example, when the mongoose was introduced to Hawaii in order to control the rat population, it preyed on the endemic birds of Hawaii, especially their eggs, more often than it ate the rats.
Cane toads (Bufo marinus) were introduced to Australia in the 1930s in a failed attempt to control the cane beetle, a pest of sugar cane crops. 102 toads were obtained from Hawaii and bred in captivity to increase their numbers until they were released into the sugar cane fields of the tropic north in 1935. It was later discovered that the toads can't jump very high so they did not eat the cane beetles which stayed up on the upper stalks of the cane plants. The toads soon became very numerous and out-competed native species and became very harmful to the Australian environment, including being very toxic to would-be predators such as native snakes.
- Ref:
Coming this summer to a theatre near you:
Texas Zombie Ant Chainsaw Massacre!
How's that for a mashup?
I for one don't welcome your tired unfunny cliche use.
When are the Russians going to get around to linking all these zombies into a botnet? Or would that be a bugnet?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
What do you do when a foreign species has been introduced to your land from another continent?
They aren't native and unfortunately in Texas there aren't any natural predators to the fire ant (such as the ant eater).
No comprende? Let me type that a little slower for you...
Last time I checked, insects weren't plants.
The good, the evil and the vacuum tubes.
I'll go wild on your wife...
An example of an invasive species is the alligator weed. [...] The alligator weed flea beetle and two other biological controls were released in Florida. Because of their success, Florida banned the use of herbicides to control alligator weed three years after the controls were introduced.
You said:
Not animals. Insects. The distinction does matter.
Once again I will quote Wikipedia:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Mandibulata
Class: Insecta
and:
Insects are the most diverse group of animals on the planet.
If only Slashdot provided some way to get more details, so you could read more about the plan instead of just assuming they did no kind of study and are totally winging it with no thought or planning whatsoever.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
People are animals too, as are insects and worms and fish and dogs and frogs.
Being a member of Animalia usually means you're an animal, but the common term animal is not universally applied to Parazoa/Porifera(sponges) even though sponges are technically part of the "Animal kingdom".
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Whatever company that makes RAID (bug spray, not disk stuff)...
BUY!
The product will be needed soon, and in great quantities.
Porky Pig tried this once in an old Bug Bunny cartoon.
He had a mouse problem, so he bought a cat.
When Porky Pig went to bed, the cat invited all of his friends over and they got wasted played the piano loudly and sang drinking songs. One of the cats had a lampshade on his head and everything.
When Porky Pig got fed up with this, he bought a dog. How he found a place in the 50's or 60's that sold dogs in the middle of the night is anyone's guess. He let the dog loose in the house and waited.
The cats got the dog drunk and he was singing with them in about 30 seconds.
So obviously these flies are eventually going to get drunk and sing, which is pretty cool, making this plan sweet.
After a few horrendous early bad attempts (Cane Toads for example) Australia's CSIRO (the government's research arm) has gotten very very good at importing biological controls to deal with other invasive species. They now have methodologies in place that let them do so on a regular basis.
Examples include the moth that was used to eradicate Prickly Pear, the introducing of African dung beetles to curb an explosion in flies due to agriculture, and the rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus have all been very successful.
And they've introduced no less than 5 different species (3 weevils, 2 flies and a moth) to successfully control Onopordum Thistles (although the program is ongoing).
I think the rule of thumb here is that you don't solve your invasive species problems by just wandering over to their source country, picking up the first highly visible superpredator that you find, and bringing it back. (Cane Toads, Mongooses, Wolves, etc)
Yeah. Some of them are called Bob.
The good, the evil and the vacuum tubes.
When I got to New Mexico, I couldn't even look at huevos rancheros. Within a year, they had become a breakfast favorite.
The phorids will have whole generations to refine their taste.
Yes, biocontrol has worked a few times before.
Obviously, the screw-up results get more press than when an introduced species does work.
-Peter Petridish
Why were you modded +5 insightful? You're just wrong. I have to plant a wasp larva on you for trying to get away with this.
Go here and read about 20 years of successful biological control of pest insect species
Reminds me of cane toads.
I understand that there was an additional import used to deal with Cane Toads that isn't in the wiki article. As I heard it:
There was a problem with cattle dung. The native dung beetles didn't dispose of it. So each cow flop would lie around for years, killing off a circle of grass several feet across. Cows make a LOT of flops, so this was a serious problem
So they imported dung beetles that WOULD break up and bury cow flops. But the Cane Toad would eat them, so they didn't take hold.
Finally they found a BIG dung beetle that would use cow flops. The cane toads would eat this one, too. But it was a big hardy bug. So it would dig its way out of the toad. Problem (and toad) solved. B-)
Unfortunately there apparently aren't enough cow flops to produce a big enough population of these booby-trap-beetles to wipe out the cane toads. So the toads are still a problem.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I, for one, fear the eventual introduction of the Taiwanese semiconductor beetle. Not only do its feeding tunnels encourage premature ion migration, it carries the fungus that causes bit rot.
In Texas, fire ants are bountiful. There will be no need to attack other ants...
Of course that's now, it will be interesting to see what happens when the fire ant population starts dwindling. But basically these will probably just keep it in more of a natural check.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Can I get something like this for my ex-wife?
People are animals too, as are insects and worms and fish and dogs and frogs.
Being a member of Animalia usually means you're an animal, but the common term animal is not universally applied to Parazoa/Porifera(sponges) even though sponges are technically part of the "Animal kingdom".
I think in general though, it would be easier to control mammals (like us humans) and amphibians rather than insects which tend to bread much more vociferously.
I think that since this is a science topic and a "nerd" Web site that the use of the term "animal" should be used in its more scientific (rather than colloquial) meaning.
Apparently the ants are actively attracted to electrical equipment, people seem to think that they sense the magnetic fields(which is pretty cool; but not unheard of, there are a bunch of animals that are known to do so).
:(
Unfortunately, I learned this fascinating fact after my visit to Texas. I was particularly saddened to discover that my girlfriend had been previously aware of it; but had decided to head off my enthusiasm for dubiously sensible electricity experiments by not telling me at the time.
I'm not sure, there might be unforeseen consequences if such a mechanism were provided...
I think he was saying that there must also be ants that are native to Texas and that these flies will damage their populations, in addition to the foreign fire ant populations.
This is the first year I have not seen any fire ants. It used to be a constant battle, and the bites hurt. A year or two ago the crazy ants showed up (Paratrechina longicornis). They are now everywhere and have evicted the fire ants. They rarely bite, but they are EVERYWHERE (in my yard). They even tried to move into my car. EVERYWHERE.
Just like our current human overlords, then.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
In Australia we have recently had the fire ant invade our island nation with some very nasty environmental results. After years of study the CSIRO have discovered an inherent weakness with the fire ants colonies. The queen is the only ant able to breed in a colony so if you disable her the colony dies. So what we do here in the land of the sun and over sized rabbits called kangaroos is put the fire ant the queen on the pill, so far it has worked very well but like everything needs to be managed.
More info can be found here
No, it's cool. I saw this movie. We win in the end.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
Speaking of congress, do these foreign fly workers have the appropriate visa? With such high unemployment I would hate to see more American ant-killing flies lose their jobs!
hmm, is this is fork of openldap that I don't know about?
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
Both of my older sons can recite the list of all the Pokemon... nothing could be more diverse than that.
It's not always bad. Cactoblastis caterpillar larvae introduction was pretty effective against prickly pear.
I don't therefore I'm not.
Listen Jimmy, if a zombie fire ant ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about! Zombie fire ants crawl in through your ear and feed on your brains while you're asleep, WHY DO YOU THINK THEY CALL THEM ZOMBIES?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
And do you know the worst part, Jimmy? They don't kill you right away. No, they paralyze you and then they feast, then they lay eggs inside your head and you're still alive as the little ones crawl out through your nose and mouth, and eventually, your eyes.
Now go to bed, grampa hears something in the walls he's got to deal with.
Well, are there any native predators for these flies then? Or will it merely set off another even more vicious plague, one which attacks the native species instead of its intended target like most of these ill conceived schemes. If introducing one foreign pest is bad, introducing an entire food chain seems far worse to me.
I live near the University of Texas college and personally know many people involved in the research of these fly's. Many teams involved have all told me the same story; there is a toxin found exclusively inside the fire ant thorax that the fly's sense and are drawn to. They did not go into more detail that I could retain as I am not a biochemist, I simply felt I could contribute to the Slashdot community with personal knowledge that the article lacked.
I, for one, fear the eventual introduction of the Taiwanese semiconductor beetle. Not only do its feeding tunnels encourage premature ion migration, it carries the fungus that causes bit rot.
Actually that fungus that causes bit rot is caused by the lack of lead in the solder that causes "whiskering". Lead kept the whiskering down in circuits; it's removal means now that many forms of electronics will simply "wear out" over time. The whiskers are little tiny cylinders of tin, a conductor, and they tend to grow on new circuits over time. http://archive.evaluationengineering.com/archive/articles/0606/0606lead-free.asp has a good description and accompanying photomicrographs. Lead has been legislated out of solder by RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) acts in various countries under a variety of names.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
That works only if fire ants don't evolve to have multiple queens in one colony, like the fire ants here in Texas did. To add insult to injury, the worker fire ants will not feed all the queens the same foods, making it difficult to kill all the queens in a colony through poisoning.
Actually, I'm very tempted to apply:
1. Occam's Razor. If someone consistently acts stupid, talks stupid, etc, there are two possible explanations:
A: He's stupid.
B: He's a really really smart guy and a great actor, and pretends so well to be stupid that nobody can tell the difference.
I think you'll agree that the first is the simpler explanation.
2. The Peter Principle: everyone keeps getting promoted until they become incompetent for the job they just got promoted to. (E.g., because it needs different skills than the previous one.)
Politicians are actually one of the original examples in Peter's book. To get elected you need charisma, basically. But after you get elected, you need stuff like management skills, you need to know economics, etc. None of those played any role in convincing the people to elect you. So it's quite easy to end up with a bunch of elected politicians who genuinely don't have any more skills than talking convincingly out the arse and looking good in front of a camera. The skills they'd actually need to do a good job in the office, they simply don't have.
Worse yet, we elect those who can _lie_ convincingly or at least conveniently not mention half the truth. My standard example is the Phillips curve: all else being equal (and invariably out of your control), inflation and unemployment depend on each other. You push one down, the other goes up. Now think of all the politicians whose claim to deserving the office is, basically, "OMG, under the current government there is inflation! We'll reduce that!" or conversely for unemployment. But they never mention that their plan involves the other going _up_. If they told you that, that would be political suicide. So their getting elected depends on claiming to get one up, while strongly implying and getting you to assume (though not actually saying so) that the other will obviously stay put.
Or occasionally one promises to solve both. 'Cause, I suppose, if you're going to lie anyway, might as well go all the way.
Then we wonder how come they lie after they got elected, instead of actually doing what they promised. Duh. Because we tested their ability to lie, not the ability to do what they promised. We just promoted someone to a position for which they're unqualified and incompetent.
3. As a bonus: Hanlon's Razor. Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
I don't doubt that some of the above mentioned don't outright lie, but genuinely Peter's Principle applies. They don't understand economics well enough to know that they're promising an impossibility.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Hence, sometimes people distinguish between animals and fish
Animals and fish? I don't think I've ever heard that split before. People often say things like "well at least we're not animals," or "humans can contemplate their existence, unlike animals," however I feel like that just stems from not having a precise term defining the set of all animals, minus humans.
Of course, even if we did have such a term, would it include homo sapiens sapiens and neanderthals? At what point would we be considered separate from the rest of the animal kingdom?
Getting back to the animals, we have several terms that can mean different things. For example a vegetarian might say "I don't eat meat," but in common parlance of lots of cookbooks (especially cookbooks over a decade or two old) you have meat, poultry, fish, game, and pork.
So-called pescetarians might eat plants + seafood, or just plants + fish. Wikipedia indicates that the word is a portmanteau of the Italian word pesce ("fish") + vegetarian; if a person eats things beyond just fish (e.g. crustaceans), should we use a different word?
"Omnivore" isn't much better, as I certainly don't eat everything. I can't even eat tomato plants and rhubarb leaves -- things that look remotely edible. But people generally understand each other, even if our words aren't as precisely specified as much people would like.
coding is life
It would probably be different if the ants were native.
They actually got here from South America through a port in Mobile, Alabama.
And now they're more than just a Mobile, Alabama problem.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/FireantmapUSA.jpg
Furthur reading on the RIFA (Red imported fire ant)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_imported_fire_ant
Exhibit B: Crown of Thorns Starfish
At one point these poor asteroidea were cut into pieces as a form of population control. People realized that the population was doubling. Turns out, they can regrow into separate functioning organisms.
Kinda like fantasia and mickey mouse and the brooms, y'know.
Apparently a big component of the attraction is that electric-fried fire ants smell really good to other fire ants
***Way to fuck over the native ants, Texas. Not to mention any other unpredictable side-effects, which, when talking about introduced species, are /ALWAYS BAD/.***
A bit too absolute perhaps. Phorid flies are picky eaters. Part of the problem is that phorids that attack the native fire ants -- which are not considered to be much of a problem (in the US) -- don't find the non-native fire ants -- which are a problem here -- appealing. The proposal it to release phorids that are the natural enemies of the non-native fire ants and do not attack the indigenous species.
I suspect that if you had ever encountered Solenopsis wagneri, your opinions on the introductions of natural controls might be a bit less rigid.
see http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~gilbert/research/fireants/faqans.html#which
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
When they mentioned bringing the natural predator from another continent, I imagined this.
Now, that would be a cool animal to set loose in Texas!
Hi, I'm a zombifying parasite. You may remember me from such insects as cockroaches and grasshoppers.
Many invasive plants are close enough to pests, even if just by eventual ubiquity.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Yes, but the probability of her having a real vagina is 99,99%.
It's 6:23 in the AM, and this is what's sitting on my RSS reader:
Some days you just want to crawl back into bed.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Animal, vegetable, or mineral?
Screw taxonomy. If it moves, it's an animal, eat it. If it don't move, it might be vegetable, eat it. If it wasn't a vegetable, you needed your minerals anyway.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
And the best part is, if the cows get out of control, we've already got effective (and tasty) methods of dealing with that problem.
Here's a solution.
As one who has studied entomology, especially Biological Control; I am aware that there were faulty methods of evaluating suitable insects for attacking imported pests. The USDA has stricter standards now for evaluating host specificity (how likely is the critter going to pick on a native vs target insect) of a biocontrol agent (= phorid flies in this case).
True, in the case of ants, since there are so many species, foolproof bioagents can be difficult to get, but there have been successes too. I personally have worked with Cereal Leaf Beetle and the complex of wasps we used to control the critters have successfully kept them in check...and kept wheat production costs down.