Electronics-Loving 'Crazy Ants' Invading Southern US

From an article at the Houston Chronicle (not The Onion) comes a report of concern to anyone in a warm climate with, well, electronics. From the article: "According to researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, invasive 'crazy ants' are slowly displacing fire ants in the southeastern United States. These 'Tawny Crazy Ants' have a peculiar predilection toward electronics as well. 'They nest in electronics and create short circuits, as they create a contact bridge between two points when they get electrocuted they release an alarm pheromone,' says UT research assistant Edward LeBrun. 'The other ants are attracted to the chemicals that other ants give off,' he adds. At this point, more ants arrive and create a larger nest." The L.A. Times also has a report, which says "Thus far, the crazy ants are not falling for the traditional poisons used to eliminate fire ant mounds. And when local mounds are destroyed manually, they are quickly regenerated. 'They don't sting like fire ants do, but aside from that they are much bigger pests,' LeBrun said. 'There are videos on YouTube of people sweeping out dustpans full of these ants from their bathroom. You have to call pest control operators every three or four months just to keep the infestation under control. It's very expensive.'"

Comments

I blame the H1B system!!!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

These foreigners are destroying good ol american jobs. I am liberal except for when it comes to things that effect me as I am a hypocrite.

Re:I blame the H1B system!!!!!!

[Tablizer]

Oh those H1B ants!

Patent it

[Anonymous Coward]

Quick someone file a patent with "crazy ants" on the end. Then the little suckers will be litigated out of existence.

Depends on the electronics

[fustakrakich]

Try putting a router in your house. It might keep ants away too.

Re:Depends on the electronics

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Bah, if your computer is infested with ants, you need to call upon mavens to eliminate them.

Re:Depends on the electronics

[Mitchell314]

Or just file a bug report online.

Re:Depends on the electronics

[Idbar]

I was also thinking, if they're attracted to electronics, why are they being swept from the bathroom? I guess that's why they're called crazy? But, yes, I'm curious why they prefer bathrooms instead of living rooms, why probably have more electronics.

Re:Depends on the electronics

[PolygamousRanchKid]

But, yes, I'm curious why they prefer bathrooms instead of living rooms, why probably have more electronics.

Maybe they are little sexual voyeur perverts, with ant-cams . . . ? And they share what they see via chemical signals with the rest of their nest in a kinda sorta micro-ant-internet . . . or Interant . . .

Maybe folks should think about keeping anteaters as household pets . . . ?

But if that went terribly wrong, we might end up with a "Planet of the Anteaters!"

Re:Depends on the electronics

[MouseTheLuckyDog]

Uhm. IPads for toilets?

Re:Depends on the electronics

[Mike Frett]

Exactly. I think people aren't getting it though, with this and the Router; It's starting to become pretty clear that our invisible signals are having an effect on nature. The future is going to tell whether or not it's negative. If it is negative, I can't see people caring much until all of nature has been wiped out by our selfish and care free lifestyles. Isn't that how it works now, Ignorant until it's too late?.

Re:Depends on the electronics

[dynamo52]

Maybe folks should think about keeping anteaters as household pets

This wouldn't work. These ants don't live anywhere cold enough to freeze the gorillas.

Re:Depends on the electronics

[Anonymous Coward]

The ants are attracted to electronics, not electricity. They will also go for devices that are turned off.
But go ahead, run around and do your scaremongering. I'm sure that panic haven't killed more people than the apocalyptic scenarios... oh wait..

Re:Depends on the electronics

[Anonymous Coward]

Electrical transformers (big green boxes in yards) != electronics.

Re:Depends on the electronics

[Mike Frett]

What the hell do you think powers electronics, Hot Dogs and Dough nuts?. It's using Electricity even if it's turned off. And who is Scaremongering? I said the FUTURE will tell if it's true, get a clue honcho.

Re:Depends on the electronics

[sanjacguy]

A couple of things to keep in mind about bathrooms in Texas: 1) there's moisture there, both steam from showers/baths and from direct water sources - and Texas is in a deep drought 2) the fan housing has to go outside 3) lots and lots of tile makes ants easier to spot

Re:Depends on the electronics

[Optali]

Handy for pr0n!

Re:Depends on the electronics

[Ginzel]

Clark! We need you!

Controlling infestations

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem really relies on the chemical trail ants leave to alert others where to go. If you have an ant problem you need to not only kill the ones present but you need to eliminate the trails they leave. Indoors bleaching the hell out of the surfaces they walk across regularly helps a lot. Out doors you really are screwed unless you want to start digging stuff up.

Re:Controlling infestations

[Nikker]

What about setting up a bucket with a simple circuit in the bottom that would make it easy for the ants to gather? Put a one way valve on it to keep them in. Once the bucket is full, dispose.

Re:Controlling infestations

[Anonymous Coward]

A bucket full of ants and you suggest simple 'disposal'. My god man, you have *a bucket full of ants*! The mind reels at the possibilities!

Re:Controlling infestations

[Immerman]

Or as an alternative - when you find an "ant highway" entering your home crush some of them and smear them around the area where they are entering. It may not work for all species, but for most it seems to effectively communicate that this is not a healthy place to be in their native "language". I've never used pesticides of any sort, and rarely have more than a couple brief (under 48 hour) "invasions" per year. Then again I also allow spiders, house centipedes, and other human-harmless predators to live unmolested in my home as long as long as they keep a low profile (my cat does most of the enforcing on that front), so it probably doesn't have nearly the "land of milk and honey" appeal of many modern homes to begin with.

Probably wouldn't work for crazy ants though, sounds like their death phermones actively attract more ants, though perhaps it's electrocution specifically that has that effect.

Re:Controlling infestations

[Mashiki]

I've got a place in Florida(the land of cockroaches, more cockroaches, ants, and now invasive species), stepping on ants might work with some species but for most barrier protection works best. And same with plain old baiting to kill them, especially fire ants. Up here in Ontario, stepping on paths works on some of the carpenter ants as well, but not all of them. Doesn't work on the pavement ants all the time either, depends on how hungry they are. You're better off using again a good barrier type spray. In anycase, it'll be interesting to see how we deal with these ones. I'm guessing that if they're that sensitive and drawn to electronics, the answer will be discovering something that drives them away, and just slapping one at your house.

Re: Controlling infestations

[Anonymous Coward]

"Wow! A whole bucket full o' ants and it's mine! Is Largo still around?"

Re:Controlling infestations

[Anonymous Coward]

A bucket full of poison resistant ants. Let's send 'em to Washington to scare away the politicians.

Re: Controlling infestations

[Anonymous Coward]

Largo LaGrande?

Re:Controlling infestations

[Donald R. Weimann]

Find the ant mounds and sprinkle some cornmeal around them. They will take the cornmeal into the nest and all the ants, including the queen, will eat it. They can eat it but they cannot digest it so they will all die. If enough people would do this it could eliminate the ant problem. It has worked very well on all of the fire ant mounds that I have doctored in this way.

Re:Controlling infestations

[tibman]

I like your solution!

My strategy so far is vacuum them up and grab a bottle of woodglue. When you find where they are coming from, just squirt some woodglue into the hole. If they start coming out of another hole you repeat until they are gone. For big holes you can use a scrap of paper like a patch and glue it in place (like in cabinets or utility areas). If they are really bad i break out the bio-warfare traps (but that is rare).

Re:Controlling infestations

[flayzernax]

Smart.

Just to be a bit funny, please don't take personally. Is that GMO or non GMO corn?

Don't have these new ants around here but we have fire ants galore. And their pretty aggressive. Don't stand in one of their trails they will attack you and try to drive you off.

Re:Controlling infestations

[Anonymous Coward]

They will take the cornmeal into the nest and all the ants, including the queen, will eat it. They can eat it but they cannot digest it so they will all die.

That's a neat trick since fire ant workers can't ingest particles larger than 2 microns.

Re:Controlling infestations

[Hognoxious]

The little buggers were on a BBC documentary last week - Nature's Wierdest Shit, or something like that.

I thought they mentioned on it that they'd found a solution. But I was under attack from the hoglets at the time so I'm damned if I can remember what it was.

Generally though, if something's attracted to X you can use X or something that emulates it as a decoy.

Re:Controlling infestations

[flayzernax]

* Before the G-police show up. Yes I know it's they're.

Re:Controlling infestations

[BradleyUffner]

That's a neat trick since fire ant workers can't ingest particles larger than 2 microns.

I'm fairly sure ants know how to take bites out of things larger than their mouth.

Re:Controlling infestations

[Anonymous Coward]

Just make sure you kill them all. The last thing we need is a breed of ants that develop resistance to crushing.

Re:Controlling infestations

[Anonymous Coward]

Or if they are picky eaters, just use a mixture of boric acid and sugar, sometimes mixed with water. A puddle sometimes drowns some of the ants so they don't report it back, but a paper towel soaked in it works. The nice thing is boric acid has an lethal dosage for mammals larger than that of table salt, so it is reasonably safe around pets and humans in that quantity, but it is pretty destructive to ants. Straight powder dumped across entrances and trails works really well as deterrent too.

Re:Controlling infestations

[Anonymous Coward]

What works really great against aunts is some dish washer soap and water. Ants traditionally use the surface tension of water keep afloat instead of sinking. Dish soap is abrasive, cheap, but it's not too bad for the environment. It lowers the surface tension of water causing them to drown. Whenever ants are in my driveway I mix dish soap and water and it does an excellent job killing them. Works fast and after doing it like three or four times max they generally won't return for maybe until next year.

Re:Controlling infestations

[flayzernax]

I've had mixed results with Borax, but thats not boric acid. It works good in clean closets indoors where sometimes the ants will crawl in and try to nest to keep warm. It doesn't work if a real good food source is near though. Like garbage or a pantry.

Re:Controlling infestations

[KGIII]

Did you miss the, "And their pretty aggressive" part? That should be "they're" for "they are." So, yeah, their correction was correct. Your correction of their correction is incorrect, correct?

Re:Controlling infestations

[KGIII]

What works really great against aunts is some dish washer soap and water. Ants traditionally use the surface tension of water keep afloat instead of sinking. Dish soap is abrasive, cheap, but it's not too bad for the environment. It lowers the surface tension of water causing them to drown. Whenever ants are in my driveway I mix dish soap and water and it does an excellent job killing them. Works fast and after doing it like three or four times max they generally won't return for maybe until next year.

Slashdot is not your personal fetish site. ;)

Re:Controlling infestations

[Ultracrepidarian]

Someone said they were all over pancake syrup. If so, try this: http://www.food.com/recipe/get-rid-of-ants-ants-ants-203233 (boric acid and sugar)

Re:Controlling infestations

[jrumney]

For most ant species, the death of a small number will bring the hordes to fight off the attack. The death of a large number will make them retreat and avoid that area for a while.

Re:Controlling infestations

[geminidomino]

Especially fire ants. I've got an ankle that serves nicely as evidence.

Little bastards...

Re:Controlling infestations

[nanoflower]

I wonder if that chalk theory works with these ants? I saw something the other day that said simply drawing a line of chalk across the area where ants comes in will stop them from coming that way. The ants apparently don't like the chalk for some reason and won't cross it.

Re:Controlling infestations

[Reziac]

My method of killing fire ants:

Put two tablespoons of diazinon granules on top of the hill.

Next day the entire colony is dead.

I was astonished.

[And people wonder why I went around buying up all the diazinon I could find when it was taken off the market.]

Re:Controlling infestations

[Reziac]

Conversely I've found the best bait to attract ants is -- dead ants. Squish a few and pretty soon you've got lots of ants. (I use this trick when I find some of the tasty kind and feel a yen for fried ants. Our cold-climate American ants are too puny to be worth the bother unless you've got a whole lot of 'em.)

Re:Controlling infestations

[Technician]

I am wondering if the underground queens can be eliminated with the application of an Oxygen deficient gas such as CO2 or Nitrogen. I presume the nests can be found. A few cubic feet of Nitrogen should cause problems if injected directly into the soil in the mound displacing the normal air.

Re:Controlling infestations

[Anonymous Coward]

Sevin Dust works great for regular house ants. Sprinkle some around the edge of the walls, sweep it into the cracks beneath the baseboards, and no more ants. Sevin dust is used to keep bugs off of vegetables in your garden, so I would assume it is not as toxic as most pesticides.

Re:Controlling infestations

[samwichse]

Diatomaceous earth also works wonders. Get a bag of "food grade" (yes, it's often mixed into the food you eat) DE and sprinkle around the baseboards where they're coming in. Avoid "pool grade" for your lung health.

It works like moon dust works on astronauts: it's sticky and microscopic and gets into the joints and cuts up the ants, resulting in their eventual death by dehydration.

Sam

Re:Controlling infestations

[jonadab]

> you have *a bucket full of ants*! The mind reels at the possibilities!

You did say mushed up ants attract live ones, right?

Okay, so first, you puree them. Then you load up every Super Soaker you've got. Then you and a friend have a "water" gun fight, of course, but the question is where to have it, or, more specifically, *whose* backyard you have it in.

Re:Controlling infestations

[X0563511]

Well then you just don't have the right ants. These bastards are 1/4" long.

Re:Controlling infestations

[X0563511]

[And people wonder why I went around buying up all the diazinon I could find when it was taken off the market.]

Don't suppose you ever wondered why it was taken off the market, when killing insects was it's purpose?

Because diazinon is fat soluble, there is potential for delayed toxicity if significant amounts of diazinon are stored in fatty tissues. Intermediate syndrome generally occurs within 24–96 hours after exposure. Intermediate syndrome in humans is characterized by difficulty breathing and muscular weakness, often in the face neck and proximal limb muscles. Cranial nerve palsies and depressed tendon reflexes have also been reported.

Diazinon is relatively stable under standard ambient temperature and pressure but is susceptible to form toxic phosphine gas upon heating.

Re:Controlling infestations

[Reziac]

Those look like the tasty kind, too :D

Where I lived in the desert, those woulda been runts. The harvester ants run 1/3' to 1/2". No good to eat, tho... all crunch and no taste.

They did keep the yard weeded, tho.

Re:Controlling infestations

[Reziac]

I did wonder, but at the time didn't see anything about it. However, I haven't found anything else that can replace it for certain applications.

Re:Controlling infestations

[X0563511]

Well, just be careful with it. Especially that last part - phosphine gas is not something you want around.

Being fat soluble means skin absorption would be high as well, so be careful while handling.

Re:Controlling infestations

[Reziac]

Yeah, I didn't figure a person should bathe in it, or use it as room freshener! :)

Re:Controlling infestations

[Agent0013]

I have used the artificial sweetener Equal to get rid of ants that start investigating my kitchen. I hear that they take it back to the nest and it kills them off also. I don't know about that part for sure, but I can attest to it being very effective at getting rid of an infestation. One little packet picked up from a diner and sprinkled into a corner of the kitchen counter will keep them out for the season.

Re:Controlling infestations

[Anonymous Coward]

I've tried it. It's not that they won't cross chalk, but they definitely don't like it. I've tried it for cat food outside. Draw a circle around the bowl. It was hit or miss at best.

What do these things eat?

[anubi]

That is my first concern. If they eat wood, its bad news... really bad news. If they eat other bugs, I am gonna leave them alone.

If they like termites, where can I get some?

Re:What do these things eat?

[C0R1D4N]

Pretty certain they enjoy empty soda cans, which are never found near computer desks right?

Re:What do these things eat?

[Immerman]

Sounds like they eat mostly bugs, grains, and small animals.

For natural pest control may I suggest house centipedes? Those fast, long-legged, grey-brown guys with the racing stripes. They are non-aggressive and typically incapable of stinging humans until they get quite large (they can live for almost a decade), they carry no known human diseases or parasites, and are voracious hunters whose favorite prey include termites, silverfish, bedbugs, and young cockroachs. And unlike ants they're completely uninterested in your food.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Anonymous Coward]

... and look like demon seed. :(

Re:What do these things eat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like they eat mostly bugs, grains, and small animals.

For natural pest control may I suggest house centipedes? Those fast, long-legged, grey-brown guys with the racing stripes. They are non-aggressive and typically incapable of stinging humans until they get quite large (they can live for almost a decade), they carry no known human diseases or parasites, and are voracious hunters whose favorite prey include termites, silverfish, bedbugs, and young cockroachs. And unlike ants they're completely uninterested in your food.

How about hell no!

A little bug spray easily manages crazy ants. Bifenthrin or Pyrethrum based insecticides are highly effective. Fire-ant bait is ineffective because they aren't fire ants, thank God.

Re:What do these things eat?

[tehlinux]

>may I suggest house centipedes?

Sounds like someone has never been bitten by a centipede.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Immerman]

Hell yes I have (well stung technically, centipedes don't bite). Nasty little bastards. But house cenitpedes are to "normal" centipedes what daddy longlegs are to spiders. As a general rule they can't penetrate human skin to deliver their venom, and they're non-aggressive - as long as you're gentle you can even pick them up and play with them without them trying to attack you.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Anonymous Coward]

A centipede is no match for ants. video #1 and video #2.

p.s. The ants shown in the first video are not fire ants (fire ants have driven those ants out of Texas, so I haven't seen them in 20 years, but I do remember them fondly).

Re:What do these things eat?

[I'm New Around Here]

The centipedes are pretty bad, but have you ever been bitten by nicklepedes? And those tiny little dimepedes are ten times worse, for all their small stature. Maybe we have to ask the GM Humfry what is the best solution, he seems to know everything.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Immerman]

Aww come on, as bugs go it's almost cute. Like the love child of a spider and caterpillar.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Immerman]

In fairness a house centipede is a very different breed than most - probably one of the few species that can outrun an ant. Hell, they can catch cockroaches so you know they're fast. Still probably wouldn't fair well if cornered by a swarm, but ants are in fact part of their normal diet.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Then once you have a nice house centipede infestation, you can install some mice to prey on them.
Then, to take care of the mouse infestation, cats.

This chain continues for a while. I don't remember all the specifics but I think it ends by declaring the area a national wildlife preserve and moving out, making sure not to scare any elephants in the process.

Re:What do these things eat?

[blackraven14250]

I was wondering, and you seem to know a bit about them, but why did those two not just run the hell away from them? The second one looks borderline dead by the way it's acting right from the start. I've had serious cases of house centipedes at my apartment, and those little fuckers really do run like hell, even just from the light being turned on.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Immerman]

Heh heh.

In seriousness though, why would you object to a house centipede infestation? They're harmless and provide a valuable service. If you have enough of them to really be considered an infestation then that's practically a guarantee that you have a serious infestation of something far more objectionable that they're chowing down on. When that infestation is gone the vast majority of centipedes will go looking for greener pastures. It's like a farmer complaining about the cat infestation in his grain silo.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Immerman]

Congratulations, sounds like your cockroach, termite, or other infestation won't last long (or your neighbor's infestation is being held in check).

I don't actually know all that much about centipedes in general, I've just become enamored of house centipedes, especially after spending a couple years in Denver where bedbugs are making a serious comeback (seriously annoying little critters - immune to cleanliness, bait, and just about any poison short of DDT.) I agree on the second one - in fact it looked like it already had most of it's legs ripped off. As for the first, maybe it just got unlucky? It appeared to be stuck on it's back, probably the cameraman dropped it into an existing swarm. And really most centipedes aren't actually all that fast, just look at the size and shape of the legs - house centipedes are built to RUN, whereas most species are more like heavily armored caterpillar tanks.

Re: What do these things eat?

[Anonymous Coward]

You sure they don't crawl in people's mouths at night to lay eggs?

Re: What do these things eat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bed bugs are a serious problem for all major US cities now. Apartments are fighting a losing battle as the bugs migrate between units in the walls and floors. They like to stay close to their food source, but when they leave and get hungry, they will start exploring to the ass end of the Earth to drink blood!

If these house centipedes do as you claim, they will never get all the bed bugs. If anything, both populations will be kept in check as long as there are people for the bed bugs to feed from. Thus completing a new food chain.

Re:What do these things eat?

[ChrisMaple]

There was an old lady who swallowed a horse. She died, of course.

Re: What do these things eat?

[Immerman]

Certainly, I'm not a city slicker by birth, Denver was my first (and probably last) long-term city experience, and I was savaged by "something" in my first week there that decided to chew up a sizable portion of my torso. At first bed bugs seemed like the leading candidate, so I learned quite a bit about them. Enough to discover how ridiculously unstoppable they are (I mean come on! They each feed only a few times a year and lay eggs almost continuously? How is that fair?), and that house centipedes and cockroaches are their primary predators. And I wasn't big on inviting cockroaches into my apartment. Kind of ironic - bedbugs have a bit of a stigma attached to them but the truth is that they're perfectly happy living in a spotlessly clean house, whereas somone living in a filthy roach-infested cesspool is fairly well defended against them.

You're probably right that house cenitpedes wouldn't completely eradicate a bedbug infestation, the little bastards can hide in too many inaccessible places. But I figure having them on-duty means that (1) any bedbug attempting to move in has a fair chance of getting eaten before establishing a population, and (2) any wandering bedbug might well be able to smell the local predators and look for safer territory. At any rate I managed two years in Denver as somebody who loves second-hand stores without any problems, though that could obviously have been a side-effect of my elephant-repelling rock.

As far as I can tell in the war against bedbugs we seem to have only four truly effective weapons: DDT, diatomaceous earth, cockroaches, and house centipedes. Of those only the diatoms and centipedes are welcome in my home, and diatomaceous earth is still pretty nasty stuff to go around using it preventatively. Besides, if bedbugs are making a comeback sooner or later we're going to have to simply accept the fact, and a few bedbugs aren't actually a problem - you get a few bites per year with a 50/50 chance that you're not allergic and will never notice them, and unlike most bloodsuckers they don't even spread disease. It's only a major infestation that's a problem, and a thriving centipede population should keep those from developing nicely.

Re: What do these things eat?

[KGIII]

You have mentioned an elephant-repelling rock and a heavily armored caterpillar tank. I'm impressed and amused. While I am easily amused I'm not so easily impressed so, in short, it looks like you're fairly new to Slashdot. Welcome. Your colorful colloquialisms are delightful and make me, at least, chuckle.

Then again, perhaps I'm easily impressed? I don't know. I may also be a wee bit high at the moment.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Common black ants are a natural enemy of termites. They also learn pretty well. We used to have a big nest under our house when I was growing up. They learned pretty quick not to come in where we didn't want them -- using the other guy in the thread's trick of spot killing them in an area and leaving them there for a while.
  Eventually, they rarely showed up except when it was pouring down rain and their tunnels were flooded. (Which i can totally understand and sympathize with.)

  We also had trouble with cockroaches. They were all over the neighborhood back then -- nasty little shits. You'd try some new bug spray, and it would kill off the ones in your house for a month or two, then more would move in from elsewhere, and pretty soon you'd discover they were drinking the new insecticide like it was orange juice. It was a constant war to keep those horrible little things at bay....
  Until one day I noticed this little fuzzy black and white spider just sitting there on the wall, chilling out. And I realized I'd seen him around once or twice over the past few months and, better yet, I hadn't seen a single roach in all that time. It turned out wolf spiders had moved into the neighborhood, and the cockroaches were on the run. At that point, I had my new favorite creepy crawly. I've made sure to always try to pack a couple of those guys whenever I move since then. They don't make webs, they look wicked cool, and they're fairly unobtrusive apart from the occassional sitting-on-the-wall "Hey man, how's it going?" visit. Oh and they're fast enough to catch almost anything you don't want in your house.

  Black ants + Wolf spiders are the best pest control solution you can get, IMO.

Re:What do these things eat?

[sociocapitalist]

Sounds like they eat mostly bugs, grains, and small animals.

For natural pest control may I suggest house centipedes? Those fast, long-legged, grey-brown guys with the racing stripes. They are non-aggressive and typically incapable of stinging humans until they get quite large (they can live for almost a decade), they carry no known human diseases or parasites, and are voracious hunters whose favorite prey include termites, silverfish, bedbugs, and young cockroachs. And unlike ants they're completely uninterested in your food.

Do they win versus tough ants?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LLEpKi3wcA

Re:What do these things eat?

[St.Creed]

Do wolf spiders eat silverfish? Because if so, I'm starting a wolf spider farm right now.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like someone has never been bitten by a centipede.

Those are called "Zagers" in Dutch ("Alitta Virens"). They're very rare, and live 1 meter under the beach mud. Most people never get bitten by one. Unless they try to string one on their fishing hook, and he doesn't want to cooperate...

Re:What do these things eat?

[Immerman]

Whoa, those look cool. And they can be up to four feet in length? Wow. Can they swim? They look like they'd be beautiful in the water.

They're a very different creature than centipedes though, some sort of a sea-dwelling worm. Centipedes on the other hand are a relative of spiders. You might not even have them in the Netherlands - I know of desert and tropical species, but it might be getting too cold for them that far north.

Re:What do these things eat?

[TheCarp]

> A little bug spray easily manages crazy ants. Bifenthrin or Pyrethrum based insecticides are highly effective.
> Fire-ant bait is ineffective because they aren't fire ants, thank God.

I haven't had to deal with "crazy" ants, but I had good luck with pyrenthum on a nasty ant problem once. A friend of mine was living in a dorm and came over my place. He brought a pizza box with a number of leftover slices, that had been in his dorm room. We set that in the kitchen and went to hang out in the other room. I walk into the kitchen to a horror: a swarm of ants, centering on the box, and in a solid mass covering the table, table leg, and portion of the floor.

I had some pyrenthum spray labeled for kitchen use, so I grabbed it and sprayed. The effect was immediate and complete. The writhing mass of spreading ants came to an immediate halt. Killed every single one as fast as I could spray it.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Anonymous Coward]

I haven't seen but one silverfish in years, so I think they do. Wolf spiders are fast.

I've heard that the brown variety can have a nasty bite, on par with a bee sting, but out west here we've got this black-and-white kind that get up to the size of a quarter, and they seem pretty mellow. No one in our house has been bitten yet.
  (I suppose if the spiders got too rambunctious, the cat would take care of them.)

Re:What do these things eat?

[nanoflower]

Sounds good until you get something like this going on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axDpsLPhYSg I have no problem with a wolf spider but have tens of them might be an issue.

Re: What do these things eat?

[jnork]

What is your objection to diatomaceous earth?

Re:What do these things eat?

[Anonymous Coward]

In my experience, they don't hang around. They look for bugs to eat, and so once they're ready to leave mommy's side, they spread out into the neighborhood instead of all crowding around your house and starving. Just a couple of wolf spiders in your house is like the bugpocalypse, they will lay waste to the creepy crawly population pretty fast.

Re: What do these things eat?

[Anonymous Coward]

DDT NO LONGER WORKS AGAINST THEM...in some cases, it makes them more active. The absence of DDT did increase their numbers (it was holding them in check) but recent bedbug strains in at least the tropics are no longer affected by DDT.

Re: What do these things eat?

[DigiShaman]

The danger of diatomaceous earth is in how it's applied. Because it contains silica, you don't want to be breathing that stuff in while puffing it into walls, cracks, and floorboards without a breathing mask. Once settled, it's more or less harmless. Just be sure none of it's in plain site or in the carpet as it may cause respiratory irritation for pets and crawling babies.

Re:What do these things eat?

[jonadab]

> And they can be up to four feet in length?

House centipedes? I've never seen one longer than a (human) ten-year-old's thumb.

Also, you seldom get a very good look at them, because they are absolutely *terrified* of light. As soon as you turn on any light source much brighter than an old 1980s red digital alarm clock LDC, they trip over themselves fleeing in terror for the nearest nook or cranny. Turning on one of those dinky little orange night-light bulbs scares them half to death. It's rather pitiable, actually.

But spiders are quite a bit easier to keep around in my experience, because they survive the lean winter months, when there aren't that many bugs around, by eating one another, so there are always a few spiders left in the spring to reproduce. If you have an unfinished section of basement you don't use much (e.g., around the water heater and stuff), you can just refrain from killing any spiders that are living in there, and you're pretty much guaranteed a year-round supply of them for all your insect-control needs.

I've never known a house centipede to survive indoors for more than a few months. (I suppose this and the fact that I've never seen a large one may be related.)

Re:What do these things eat?

[jonadab]

Indeed. If you have any questions about a house centipede's speed, just turn on a light and watch one run for cover. They do not hang around waiting to see what this interesting new light source signifies for their future. Your brain just about has time to register that you're seeing a house centipede run, and already it's *gone*.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Immerman]

Oh, now *that* would be freaky. No, I was referring to the "Zagers" AC linked to - it's apparently a kind of giant sea worm.

I can't say I've ever seen a house centipede much over a couple inches long, and that size is rare - I figure those are probably pretty old. And for the most part they don't seem to mind the light overmuch, at least not after they've been around for a while. More skittish than most spiders, but I'll still see them cruising across the living room floor occasionally, and they don't fire up the afterburners unless my cat goes after them. I've had a few grandaddies that I think have stuck around for several years, and they do seem to get noticably wiser and mellower with age, at least as measured by not bolting at the first sign of movement in their direction and making effective use of cover to avoid the cat. I make no attempt to keep crawling insects out of my house though, and mostly only squish spiders if they're hanging out right around my bed. So long as they don't buzz, bite, or otherwise make a nuisance of themselves I have no objection to them sharing my ecosystem. And while the population certainly drops over the winter there's usually plenty of old-timers that survive. Well, except for the first year I had my cat, she cleared the place out pretty thoroughly and had to do without for a couple months. By the next year though she had learned to be gentle with her "toys".

Re:What do these things eat?

[Aerokii]

I believe if you take an alternate path somewhere in the process, in winter, the gorillas freeze.

Re:What do these things eat?

[X0563511]

whereas most species are more like heavily armored caterpillar tanks.

With large, armor piercing mandibles.

Re:What do these things eat?

[X0563511]

Mine have balls. They do not run from light.

Re:What do these things eat?

[X0563511]

Because they look like this?

Re:What do these things eat?

[X0563511]

Out west we had the little black and white guys. Never saw them larger than a pea.

The way they would track you from across the room (their vision is absurdly sharp) and the little "hand washing" thing they did with their mouth-parts always bothered me though.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Immerman]

And you find cockroaches, lice, bedbugs, termites, etc. considerably more attractive? My feeling has always been if you feel you have "too many" spiders, house centipedes, etc. then you should try to eliminate their prey so they go elsewhere - because their prey is almost certainly more destructive, annoying, and/or dangerous to you.

Re: What do these things eat?

[jnork]

Per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth#Safety_considerations the food grade stuff has got little to no crystalline silica. Of course, even without silica, you don't want to be breathing a fine, abrasive powder.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Anonymous Coward]

I had a pet centipede for years; I can confirm that they're more awesome than spiders. No webs, and they almost never 'accidentally' end up in your bed and bite you.

And by 'pet' I mean that I set the ground rules as 'If I find you in my bed, I kill you'. My basement never really had a problem with insect pests after that for three years. I may get another one someday.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ozone is a way to fight them as well, I don't know if that makes anyone's lives easier though; tends to turn water into hydrogen peroxide.

Re:What do these things eat?

[Anonymous Coward]

House Centipedes do, and they have much of the same behavioral characteristics as wolf spiders. (No webs, leave humans/human food alone, etc)

Re: What do these things eat?

[Immerman]

The silica isn't the problem per-se, carbon has already taken the seat in any chemical bond where silica might be welcome, so it's pretty biologically inert. The problem is diatom shells tend to be good strong crystaline structures that have lots of big spikes and sharp edges that don't play well with living tissue.

Have you seen photos of diatoms? D-earth is an effective insecticide because even after "soilification" the diatom shells have plenty of spikes and sharp edges to easily punch holes through most insect exoskeletons so that they "bleed" out. Once that stuff gets into your body, what hope do your fleshy cell membranes have?

Re:What do these things eat?

[Immerman]

Much like with DDT - the problem isn't so much that they're %$#@!ing indestructible, it's that they're considerably more indestructible than *US*. Heck, high concentration bleach is pretty damn effective against AIDS*, but there's a reason we don't recommend chugging a gallon of bleach to AIDS patients.

* don't quote me on that. the point is we know how plenty of ways to kill it quickly and easily, provided you don't care about patient survival.

Re: What do these things eat?

[Immerman]

Really? That's a pretty sad statement on humanity. Where did we use DDT long enough in low enough dosages that they were able to evolve a resistance?

Re:What do these things eat?

[bingoUV]

we know how plenty of ways to kill it quickly and easily

At slashdot, we know of one way only. Nuke it from orbit. The only way to be sure.

Them ants

[Anonymous Coward]

I know most of /. will scoff at this assertion, but we may be witnessing a Biblical prophecy come true: "And there shall be destruction and darkness come upon creation, and the beasts shall reign over the earth."

Re:Them ants

[prefec2]

Aha. Maybe you should start to design your electronics differently, so ants can either not get close to the higher voltage circuits or use better insulation.

BTW: When there would be a biblical apocalypse, it would affect the whole planet. Or. If it is only in the US. Well, I will watch it on TV.

And another thing: Those ants already existed prior to those incidents (which might be triggered by globalized transportation and or the climate change). They lived in other countries for millions of years (or at least the last 6000 years in your time frame),
     

Re:Them ants

[lightknight]

Yeah, half the time the Bible is talking about Man (as in mankind, sorry ladies). Some people want to make the earth gentler for humans, some people miss the trees that used to be a part of their neighborhoods growing up. There's also a set of (seemingly) contradictory 'orders': subdue nature (terraform the earth) and at the same time, do not destroy the earth. I imagine that makes four groups: some people leaning towards the former, some leaning towards the latter, some preferring a course of moderation, and people who do not ascribe to the Bible.

But in this case, I highly doubt these ants pose a challenge. Remember, the human race, when ant-agonized (lol) enough to see something as a problem, tends to go nuclear on it...which means either bringing back DDT if the ants suddenly start eating people, or having scientists formulate something in labs that will probably make DDT look like a fire-cracker in comparison (and result in substantial loss of wildlife...). Thankfully, we aren't anywhere near that point. Removal methods are purely mechanical, and someone will probably start spraying the normal ant-removal chemicals with, I don't know, sugar, which will have them start working again.

Still, humanity....curious what happened here to breed such psychopaths. You'd think that the Earth had gone to great lengths to make the angriest, most genocidal species it could breed...

Re:Them ants

[Anonymous Coward]

I dunno, affecting some place as Godless as Texas seems about right.

Re:Them ants

[flayzernax]

Fat chance, these ants seem pretty harmless. More like annoy all over the earth.

Re:Them ants

[flayzernax]

Aliens. Genetic engineering. http://www.lloydpye.com/

-and Yes I am not posting this as an AC. Take it or leave it. It's at least entertaining.

Re:Them ants

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently there aren't any fans of 1950's era monster movies here. OP's troll is referring to this movie, Them!

Re:Them ants

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I know most of /. will scoff at this assertion, but we may be witnessing a Biblical prophecy come true: "And there shall be destruction and darkness come upon creation, and the beasts shall reign over the earth."

By mass, beasts have always reigned over the earth... A mixture of applied landscaping, chemical warfare, and rifles have allowed humans to carve out an enclave free of large mammals we don't approve of, and some of the nastier bugs and microbes(wealthy areas of the Northern Hemisphere, at least. Your mileage may vary. Offer void where restricted by law or subverted by rapid evolution of antibiotic resistant microbes. Terms and conditions may apply); but we've never been close to having the upper hand against things too small to shoot and too resilient to just habitat-destroy into submission.

ants and electricity

[Black Parrot]

I've long noticed that ants seem to have a predilection for electricity. They crawl all over electrical conduits, enter homes at electrical outlets, etc.

Re:ants and electricity

[girlintraining]

I've long noticed that ants seem to have a predilection for electricity. They crawl all over electrical conduits, enter homes at electrical outlets, etc.

It's because they can sense electromagnetic fields, which all electronics give off. Of course, the solution for dealing with these new ants is simple, but counterintuitive -- spray everything with this 'alarm' pheremone. If ants navigate by scent trail, and that's how they rebuild their nests, and it's too challenging to remove the scent trails... then you are left with only one option:

Blind the little bastards by coating everything in it. It's my understanding that, without those trails, they'll be helpless to organize to find food, each other, or even the way home. Everything depends on those trails... so if you overload their sense organs and blind them, they'll perish. After they're dead, the pheremones sprayed will slowly dissipate, but importantly... the trails they've laid down will dissipate faster, so the area is then chemically neutral again.

It is, quite literally, chemical warfare. (-_-)

Re:ants and electricity

[Anonymous Coward]

.

Ahhh...

A Bio-CrapFlood attack.

.

Re:ants and electricity

[Solandri]

In colder climates, I've noticed heat is an attractant as well. I'd run networking cable through a multi-tenant building and placed a switch in the concrete-floored water heater room. A few years later I got a call saying the network had stopped working. I investigated and when I checked the switch, not only was it full of ants, they'd carried a large number of their eggs and larvae inside. They'd coated the circuit board with some sort of liquid which shorted out the switch (it was completely dead even after I cleaned out the ants and residue). Aside from the water heater (which was gas so had an open flame), the switch was the hottest thing in the sub-zero room. They're supposed to be hibernating in winter, so the fact that they were active was entirely due to the heat.

Re:ants and electricity

[Anonymous Coward]

I've long noticed that ants seem to have a predilection for electricity. They crawl all over electrical conduits, enter homes at electrical outlets, etc.

It's because they can sense electromagnetic fields, which all electronics give off. Of course, the solution for dealing with these new ants is simple, but counterintuitive -- spray everything with this 'alarm' pheremone. If ants navigate by scent trail, and that's how they rebuild their nests, and it's too challenging to remove the scent trails... then you are left with only one option:

Blind the little bastards by coating everything in it. It's my understanding that, without those trails, they'll be helpless to organize to find food, each other, or even the way home. Everything depends on those trails... so if you overload their sense organs and blind them, they'll perish. After they're dead, the pheremones sprayed will slowly dissipate, but importantly... the trails they've laid down will dissipate faster, so the area is then chemically neutral again.

It is, quite literally, chemical warfare. (-_-)

This is but one of the reasons why I like living in the Arctic...

Re:ants and electricity

[Anonymous Coward]

some time ago when i've had this problem, i read it is the ozone that attracts them...

i have had a window a/c unit's switch absolutely clogged with them, as well as a pump controller switch that was clogged with just 'regular' ants...

Re:ants and electricity

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe electrocution is an ex-static way to die for them.

Re:ants and electricity

[DigiShaman]

It's a brilliant idea - in theory. Just remember that this sort of thing doesn't happen in the wild. They're also not intelligent. Who know what will happen. In fact, you may make matters worse by attracting more ant colonies near your home to stage the next future invasion. After all, that pheromone bomb is enticing even if worthless to them.

My point is that this theory should be tried and tested elsewhere first and not use your own home as a test subject. Otherwise, you could be taking a step forwarded while taking two steps back in the process.

Re:ants and electricity

[girlintraining]

Oh hell yes. Only a complete idiot would test this in a residential setting first. No. You find a nice big chunk of desert or some other remote place the little bastards are, establish a way to monitor the population, and then release your pheremone bomb. True to scientific form, have an adjacent area with a similar population and environment, under the same type of observation at the same time.

I was suggesting only what the weapons of mass (ant) destruction would be, say nothing of the safety considerations or unintended consequences. To my knowledge, nobody's done this kind of thing yet. It would need to be fully researched and the effects understood before molding it into a commercially-available product!

The future is past

[Anonymous Coward]

Wasn't this already a Rudy Rucker novel?

Re:The future is past

[oodaloop]

The Hacker and the Ants. Yes, if you overlook the many glaring differences, you might notice some passing similarities.

Re:The future is past

[Ol Biscuitbarrel]

Yep, The Hacker and the Ants. My first thought was the ants are going clubbing 80s style, which rings a faint bell too. Maybe a beer commercial...?

Re:The future is past

[Anonymous Coward]

It's from Phase IV

Re:The future is past

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you! First thought that came to mind when I read this.

Re:The future is past

[Anonymous Coward]

Bingo! Phase IV creeped me out as a kid.

      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070531/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1

Re:The future is past

[Anonymous Coward]

Also the Rapture of the Nerds with Stross and Doctorow.

Dale's dead bug

[Anonymous Coward]

Dale's dead bug will get rid of them

Evolution...

[houbou]

Even the ants want to travel the electronic highway.. :)

Re:Evolution...

[Anonymous Coward]

They're getting ready for the next Carrington Event, the telegraph system wasn't quite sufficient for them to take over the planet's electrical system the last time the sun flared. But next time, just wait. They'll have their conductors all in place to arrange things to their own benefit when the power surges.

Here's a solution

[houbou]

Use those old Cisco routers from 10 yrs ago... as ant baits! :)

Re:Here's a solution

[antdude]

Ants in Weird/Odd Places:

Bugs in the computer: Sun
Microsystems, Inc. knows why Brazil is known to its native inhabitants as the kingdom of the ants.

Ants in yer... Pants? NOT!
(Toshiba notebook/laptop); Ants
Invade Apple iBook; "Yep, those are ants in that laptop".

(Tele)phones: Panasonic Cordless Phone and Ants In My Nokia Mobile Phone (A Yahoo! account is required).

Ants in Omniview switchboxes: An e-mail story of ants invading a network
switchbox.

Argentine ants invade a network hub.

Computerworld on "Ants had taken up residence in a guy's external hard drive. Seen on /.).

A photograph showing ants nesting in a guy's phone box, affecting his
digital subscriber line (DSL) connection and phone system.

A 38 seconds YouTube video showing crazy ants in a computer mouse.

One minute and 19 seconds Break video, from VideoSift: "Creepy Surprise. -- Wife asked me to try to get the printer to work, since she was having some problems with it. Imagine my surprise when I looked inside..."

Help,
A Colony Of Ants Attacked My Enterprise Rental Car And Ruined My
Vacation!

Re:Here's a solution

[KGIII]

Leave it to you to post such a response. Much appreciated.

The funny thing is, I was thinking about your site the other day as I used to go there and check out the new and interesting links pretty much every day. I didn't get around to searching for the URL. Now I can just grab it out of your sig.

Have a good one.

Re:Here's a solution

[antdude]

Thanks! Yeah, I haven't been posting a lot lately due to busy life and not enough time to see and post. :( At least I still stick with quality stuff.

Re:Here's a solution

[KGIII]

Well, they are "quality foraged." It says so right in the title. The amusing thing is that I hadn't been to the site in years (probably at least a few years) and it just happened to cross my mind within the past week or less.

Oddly? I don't even think I found your site through /. or anything, I think I found it when searching for strange links. You've had that site up and running for quite some time now. Other than you, of course, I imagine I've been going there longer than most anyone else unless you want to count my taking a few years off. LOL

Ah well, keep up the good work.

Re:Here's a solution

[antdude]

Wow and thanks. :)

Ants of the Borg

[Anonymous Coward]

Your technology will be assimilated, resistance is futile.

Air-Condition Compressors

[repetty]

I know a couple people in Austin who've paid for air-conditioning techs to "fix" their AC. It turns out that a relays in the compressor boxes outside their homes are caked with dead ant bodies, creating an insulating layer. Kinda pisses people off that nothing is actually broken but the service bill is tendered, just the same. ...and, of course, it's 100-degrees outside so it does need to be dealt with promptly.

Re:Air-Condition Compressors

[Frosty Piss]

Kinda pisses people off that nothing is actually broken but the service bill is tendered, just the same.

There is a bill because there was "service". If the homeowner wants to hassle with tracking down the issue and clean out the dead ants, they can.

Re:Air-Condition Compressors

[khallow]

It turns out that a relays in the compressor boxes outside their homes are caked with dead ant bodies, creating an insulating layer

[...]

Kinda pisses people off that nothing is actually broken

I don't see that. There was a problem - the AC was broken due to lots of ants. It got fixed. You have to pay the AC techs.

Re:Air-Condition Compressors

[__aaqvdr516]

I had to replace the contactor in my air conditioner. The little bastards turned it into an ant crematorium. I noticed the problem when the air conditioner was humming very loudly when it was supposed to be off.

Lucky for me, I found a replacement that is completely enclosed, instead of the partially open design that the original was.

Re:Air-Condition Compressors

[Eyeball97]

Kinda pisses people off that nothing is actually broken but the service bill is tendered, just the same

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at here. They're pissed off because something's NOT broken? Or they're pissed off because they have to pay for somebody's time? Either way they don't sound like very rational people.

Kent Brockman

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one welcome our new Crazy Ant overloads.

Pun intended.

Bad ant strategy?

[venicebeach]

Seems like having a predilection for something that kills you is not an instinct that should be selected for. If they are electrocuted by the electronics shouldn't this problem take care of itself sooner or later?

Re:Bad ant strategy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Only if death by electrocution outpaces reproduction, which is highly unlikely with ants.

Re:Bad ant strategy?

[Anonymous Coward]

sure it kills them but their carcasses build up and eventually insulate things like switch contacts.

Re:Bad ant strategy?

[DNS-and-BIND]

Did we even read the summary? First, being electrocuted short-circuits the electronics. Second, an alarm chemical is released which attracts more ants to replace the dead one.

An ant pile is a collective organism, one dying hardly affects it at all.

Re:Bad ant strategy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not really. Most foraging ants are sterile females and therefore wouldn't reproduce anyway. Plus, if you have thousands of ants being born and a few dozen get zapped, it's hardly a dent in the ant population. It would be like saying, "Given all the thousands of deaths each year in car crashes you'd think people who drive cars would breed themselves out of the population."

Re:Bad ant strategy?

[Tablizer]

Those colonies that waste resources "attacking" gizmos will be less successful than those that don't. However, such selection may take hundreds of years to manifest itself. Humans are not that patient.

Re:Bad ant strategy?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Seems like having a predilection for something that kills you is not an instinct that should be selected for. If they are electrocuted by the electronics shouldn't this problem take care of itself sooner or later?

I suspect that it depends on whether sensitivity to electrical fields is useful in other contexts, or(if not directly useful) at least tightly-coupled to some other sensory mechanism that is survival-critical and will take quite some time to iterate toward an electrically insensitive replacement.

Mass death upon the power lines is obvious folly; but electrification is, what, a century old(in any ecologically-relevant amount, I know about various independent developers of primitive chemical batteries going back a great deal further; but that sort of scale barely matters), the blink of an eye in evolutionary time.

If this electrical sense isn't all that useful elsewhere, or is just some accident that didn't previously cause trouble, it could actually be culled from much of the population fairly quickly. If it has some other use, or is connected to genes that code for multiple things, some of them extremely useful, they might take ages, if ever, to stop doing this.

Re:Bad ant strategy?

[r2kordmaa]

Au contraire! Where there are electrecuted ants there must be electricity, where there is electricity there must be humans, where there are humans there must be food all over the place. Some ants getting electrecuted is no drama for a hive as a whole, its like clipping nails for you and me. The dying ants wouldnt affect the gene pool even if they survived.

Re:Bad ant strategy?

[RedBear]

Seems like having a predilection for something that kills you is not an instinct that should be selected for. If they are electrocuted by the electronics shouldn't this problem take care of itself sooner or later?

Yes. Absolutely. You and I are in total agreement. This problem will take care of itself quite quickly.

In fact, within a few short decades all of the electronic devices capable of being entered and short-circuited by endless swarms of ants will have been destroyed, and will become extinct.

Oh, you thought that endless quadrillions of fast-reproducing tiny insects would be forced to evolve just because a tiny percentage of them get zapped? How amusing. That is not the sort of selection pressure that causes evolution. At least not on time scales less than millions of years.

But seriously, this predilection for electronics and emission of alarm pheromones is their greatest weakness, and I'm quite surprised nobody has taken advantage of it already to build an effective ant-killing trap. According to a documentary I watched on Netflix, fire ants have the same weakness for electronics, and the same reaction of emitting alarm pheromones when zapped. Therefore, all one has to do in order to combat either species is to build a box with some basic electronics inside that attracts the ants, and then make the ants walk one-by-one through some type of self-cleaning zapper before they ever reach the "bait" electronics. I see no reason a device couldn't be constructed to kill thousands of ants per hour in this manner and virtually wipe out entire colonies in a matter of days.

If it works it could provide enough selection pressure to cause the surviving ants to either stop trying to eat electronics or stop responding so strongly to the alarm pheromones, or both. But if the resulting modified species didn't have some other traits that allowed them to out-compete the original species it would only have a localized effect.

Re:Bad ant strategy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Those colonies that waste resources "attacking" gizmos will be less successful than those that don't

Assuming the same mechanisms that cause them to attack such things also doesn't have other effects that balance out the cost or even possibly results in a net positive regardless of the few deaths.

Re:Bad ant strategy?

[rdwulfe]

The thing is, a single worker ant in a colony means little to the colony as a whole. Only by group activity do ants accomplish anything. They're a super-organism, made up of individuals, but the whole colony can be considered a single creature.

If 1, 20, or even 1000 ants die in a colony that has up to 500,000 ore more individuals in it... the whole does not mind. Most electronics put off heat, and heat is what ants need to raise their young. Higher heat, within limits, mean the ants can develop their brood faster, since insects "live" at a higher metabolism when they are warmer.

In some species of insect, different temperatures and conditions can breed different castes, as well. In ants, heat and diet determine if the larvae develops into a fertile female, or merely a neuter, working female. Males are developed through diet and through eggs that are inseminated. Females are unfertilized eggs, usually.

So, this is why you find tons of ants and their brood under rocks or paving stones. They're using the stones to create solarium.

Ants are amazing.

It came from the desert

[Anonymous Coward]

Does no one remember that game?

Terribly difficult.

http://www.emuparadise.me/GameBase%20Amiga/Screenshots/I/It_Came_from_the_Desert_2.png

Re:It came from the desert

[Pseudonym Authority]

Come on, they are electric ants! Clearly, it came from Red Alert.

Re:It came from the desert

[Anonymous Coward]

Loosely based on the great movie Them!
Still pretty good for its 50+ years.

I Have Yet To Meet An Ant...

[Anonymous Coward]

...that can stand up to a ShopVac(TM)

It would seem to have a self correcting solution..

[Anonymous Coward]

Just put suitable simulated circuits near the ants.

When a short circuit appears, over voltage the hell out of the bus bar (20KV should do) and vaporize the short.

Now that the circuit is restored, resume waiting for another.

You could even be cute and have a delay before applying the over voltage so that the pheromones released have time to sucker a lot more in.

Hey - this counts as patent prior art - this ones mine.

I don't miss fire ants

[dorpus]

We just sold a home in Remlap, Alabama. The entire mountain that the house was on was owned by fire ants -- they built underground interconnected cities, so there was no point in spraying a mound. They were aggressive and bit you without provocation. When I got bit, my blood pressure dropped and I felt very ill for a few hours. The fire ants interbreed with local species, so they came in a large variety of appearances. The ones we had were very small and dark crimson, almost black. Their bite was all out of proportion to their size, though. We think they may have interbred with crazy ants because they liked to walk crazy zigzag paths.

Re:I don't miss fire ants

[Anonymous Coward]

Did some Nippon liquid help?

It's what I use every year to fight ordinary European ants. Seems to work really well.

Re:I don't miss fire ants

[Anonymous Coward]

maybe some predator will adapt or evolve to keep them under control, be patient a few million yrs

Re:I don't miss fire ants

[dorpus]

They naturally developed a population cycle. The lawn would be a sea of ants one year, then be relatively sparse the next year due to starvation or whatever diseases they had.

Re:I don't miss fire ants

[dorpus]

I did not see such a chemical at the local hardware stores. I did learn the futility of any agent, since they bred faster than any chemical could kill them. They seemed to have a deep underground reservoir of breeders.

Re:I don't miss fire ants

[Anonymous Coward]

you want to see whether there is some Cordyceps that would work on them
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordyceps
it would limit the maximum population density

Re:I don't miss fire ants

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, it might only work on common black ants:

http://www.vitax.co.uk/home-garden/nippon-ant-killer-liquid/

It could be that fire ants need a different poison to kill them.

Re:I don't miss fire ants

[amaurea]

Do different ant kinds really interbreed like that? I'm skeptical. They are supposed to be different species, aren't they? And fire ants seem to be relatively unrelated with crazy ants. Also, fire ants don't have a particularly painful bite - it is their sting that is poisonous.

Re:I don't miss fire ants

[dorpus]

Fire ants do interbreed.

http://www.caes.uga.edu/commodities/fieldcrops/forages/events/FC13/03/ANR-1248%20Fire%20ants%20and%20cattle.pdf
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/07/fire_ants_joes_outdoor_office.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=vxt5BqOKEAIC&pg=PA510&lpg=PA510&dq=fire+ants+interbreed&source=bl&ots=8eWZaSkLp_&sig=uJHTanPl1LV7mhieoReC1eX0plc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dwiYUdimJ-rI0gHttIGwBQ&ved=0CEwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=fire%20ants%20interbreed&f=false

Also, they do bite before stinging.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_ants

Different plant "species", such as of pine, do interbreed as well. The distinction of species vs. sub-species is often blurred in the wild.

Re:I don't miss fire ants

[r2kordmaa]

Ants have been around for hundred million years, its a good bet they will be around for as long more at least.

Re:I don't miss fire ants

[KGIII]

Did you ever play Sim Ant? It was awesome. It was as good as A-Train and Sim City.

I should go find a SIm Ant ROM... It has to be out there somewhere.

Re:I don't miss fire ants

[Anonymous Coward]

*reads the first link* Holy shit, fire ants breed with cattle?!?

Re:I don't miss fire ants

[amaurea]

Of course they bite. But the bite isn't what hurts - bites of ants that small range from unnoticable to mildly uncomfortable depending on what sort of skin they bite. What hurts is the sting. So claiming that the bite gave you those symtoms is inaccuate and misleading.

You're right that the species concept is not a hard-drawn line, and that is especially so for plants (and even more so for microorganisms), where genetically quite distant plants can interbreed if I recall correctly (but even here they almost always have to be in the same family). I think this is much less a case for anmals, though. Anyway your links all talk about crossbreeding between the red and black fire ant, which is very different from what you claimed (crossbreeding between fire ants and native ants (both red and black fire ants are relatively recent immigrants) and between fire ants and crazy ants). The red and black fire are very closely related - so close that they were previously considered the same species.

Rasberry Ant Pi[e]

[Anonymous Coward]

I was excited first the first story about these since the Raspberry Pi came out, since they are called "crazy Rasberry ants". Of course, they have to use some newfangled name for them to wreck my pun. Darn. All I wanted was crazy raspberry ant Pi[e], perhaps a crazy raspberry ant pie cluster/colony. Maybe a Raspberry Pi killed by Rasberry ants?

Re:Rasberry Ant Pi[e]

[flyingfsck]

You got to eat it with gloves or your hands will turn green.

Service

[Mister Liberty]

Amazing that the ants are given a funeral service by those techs.

Re:Service

[ColdWetDog]

What's even more heartwarming is the AC techs kind and gentle transplanting of live ants into the warm and cuddly confines of the electrical boxes.

Re:Service

[KGIII]

I'm surprised that they have time, what with all the AC posting on /. and all.

This is news?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ants have been gumming up water pump pressure switches for years. The simple solution is to place a small container under the pressure switch (around the stem) that holds something like sevin dust. They have to crawl through the sevin to get to the switch and can't.

Re:This is news?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sevin dust kills bees. You shouldn't use it, especially on anything a bee might try to pollinate.

Re:This is news?

[idunham]

So you're worried about bees pollinating water pump pressure switches now?
Or was that just a word allergy?

Good idea!

[SeaFox]

"...as they create a contact bridge between two points when they get electrocuted they release an alarm pheromone," says UT research assistant Edward LeBrun. "The other ants are attracted to the chemicals that other ants give off," he adds.

What kind of survival mechanism is that? "Oh! There's danger over there. Let's all go check it out..."

Re:Good idea!

[Tablizer]

What kind of survival mechanism is that? "Oh! There's danger over there. Let's all go check it out..."

Yeah, they are the Red Shirt ants.

Re:Good idea!

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

"...as they create a contact bridge between two points when they get electrocuted they release an alarm pheromone," says UT research assistant Edward LeBrun. "The other ants are attracted to the chemicals that other ants give off," he adds.

What kind of survival mechanism is that? "Oh! There's danger over there. Let's all go check it out..."

Given that(among the ants that don't have even cooler mechanisms, like specialized suicide soldiers who blow themselves up to shower the enemy with toxins) "swarm the enemy and keep biting and stinging without regards for casualties until nothing that isn't us is still moving" is considered a valid strategy, the chemical signalling actually makes sense: If an ant from another colony, or a predatory insect/arachnid, attacks a single ant, the ant's body automatically releases the alarm pheremone and the attacker gets zerg rushed.

It's just that, against implacable electronics that are totally indifferent to anything except being insulated by the uncounted bodies of the slain, this tactic doesn't work very well(see also: mammals that 'freeze' to avoid predators; but discover that cars aren't visual hunters; but they do kill anything that gets in their way)...

Re:Good idea!

[fazookus]

Hold my beer and watch this! Those would be your red neck ants.

Re:Good idea!

[Hognoxious]

It's more like "Someone's in our base killing our doodz. Let's go give him a good shoeing!".

Also, soldier and worker ants don't reproduce. The way they propagate their genes is by proxy, through the queen, so that explains their willingness to sacrifice themselves to protect her - hence the banzai charge. The genetics of ants (and wasps & bees) is odd. If you're one of the sterile castes the queen is more related to you than you are. Or something like that.

Re:Good idea!

[idunham]

It's just that, against implacable electronics that are totally indifferent to anything except being insulated by the uncounted bodies of the slain, this tactic doesn't work very well(see also: mammals that 'freeze' to avoid predators; but discover that cars aren't visual hunters; but they do kill anything that gets in their way)...

Ah, but it does work well. When it stops working or is insulated in dead ants, the ants have done their job.

Re:Good idea!

[KGIII]

Well, they are in Texas.

Re:Good idea!

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe this is the same gene that causes people to say things like, "Oh, this stinks! Here, smell this."

Re:Good idea!

[martinQblank]

True rednecks never let go of their beer...

Apocalypse averted

[Anonymous Coward]

Our New Robot Overlords now have natural enemies.

Electric bug zapper

[flyingfsck]

It sounds like all one needs is a large electric bug zapper since they are already attracted to it.

Re: Electric bug zapper

[iamhassi]

diatomaceous earth will kill any crawling insect and it's so safe you can eat handfuls of it and buckets of the stuff are only about $25, it's used to filter swimming pool water
http://lifehacker.com/5835163/kill-bugs-with-diatomaceous-earth

You are welcome Texas

Re: Electric bug zapper

[Quirkz]

If it's safe, why does the bag of diatomaceous earth I bought claim it's harmful and should be kept away from children, pets, and everything else? The sales guy told me the same thing about it being safe, but when I got it home and looked at the packaging it said otherwise?

Re: Electric bug zapper

[Cramer]

"LAWYERS"

Re: Electric bug zapper

[ShawnDoc]

There's different grades of diatomaceous earth. The cheap stuff you buy at Home Depot is the lower grade stuff. The high grade stuff can be eaten. However, neither type should be inhaled, and will cause irritation to the eyes and skin.

Good News / Bad News

[Tablizer]

So the good news is Fire Ants won't sting you to death because Crazy Ants are replacing them. The bad news is that Crazy Ants sting your gizmos to death.

What about putting some mild chemical in electronic coatings that ants don't like? They would then be less likely to hang out on gizmos.

Unlike pesticides on fruits, there is no "incentive" to become immune to such chemicals because there is no benefit to hanging out on electronics to begin with.

My

[M0j0_j0j0]

My router is a CISCO, should i worry too? any advice from you the computers people?

Re:My

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, you should worry. Cisco is horrible.

Re:My

[cusco]

Yes, sell it and use the money to buy something less expensive that works better and isn't manufactured by representatives of the Stygian Pits.

Electronics loving ants

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in St Augustine, FL and I had a huge infestation of ants in my HP printer/copier.....it was horrible if not interesting.......eventually they died off and my printer works great........but for 3-4 months it was crazy......

Much Better Story - With Picture

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a much better story with picture. This one is from Mississippi, but the story remains the same.

You had me at..

[buddyglass]

You had me at "They don't sting like fire ants do...".

Re:You had me at..

[Anonymous Coward]

Man fire ants can be vicious. There all over the place here in Texas. They sometimes build a nest at the edge of the walkway. The mound is no very high just runs along the edge of the walk. You stand near it on the walk way and before you know they are in your underware. Sound funny but it get rather serious.
People who move hear from up north are susceptible to getting hammered especially kids. They let their kids out in the backyard to play not knowing those hellish little demons are out there.
These thing climb up the trees and eat baby birds.
You learn to be on the lookout and watch where you put your hands and feet.
PureWaterHQ

Glad I live where it snows

[ebno-10db]

The more I hear about things like this and other interesting "wildlife" problems in the warmer parts of the country, the more I'm glad I live where it snows.

Re:Glad I live where it snows

[Anonymous Coward]

We have European fire ants up here in Maine. They live as far north as the arctic circle. Snow doesn't always matter.

Re:Glad I live where it snows

[KGIII]

Ayuh, that we do. They aren't nearly as bad as the fire ants that they have down south though - at least not in my opinion. By the way, I think you're the first fellow Mainer that I've seen on /. but I can't be sure as it's not like they have profiles that identify us as such. Ah well, you're AC and probably won't see this.

I wonder if I should inform them http://umaine.edu/publications/2550e/ that they're in Franklin County too. Too bad I'm lazy.

Instant grits?

[MAXOMENOS]

We used to sprinkle instant grits around red and and fire and nests. They'd eat the grits, their stomachs would rupture, and they would die.

Does anyone know whether this might also work on killing nests of crazy ants?

Electronics-Loving Ants?

[Johann Public]

Reminds me of the Grid Bugs of NetHack!

Mother nature reacts to Global Warming

[Anonymous Coward]

.... 'nuff said.

Bugs!

[Anonymous Coward]

My God, it's full of bugs!

Re:It would seem to have a self correcting solutio

[Anonymous Coward]

Nuke them from orbit.... just to be sure.

The appearance of these ants

[Anonymous Coward]

is just one more reason why Larry Ellison bought Lanai.

So how are the big data centers coping with this?

[dlingman]

I'd expect wallstreet, a typical googleplex or amazon data center to be prime crazy ant targets. How are they dealing with this stuff?

Crazy Ants?

[WhoaNotSoFast]

Try psychotherapy... or Thorazine.

Robotic Predators

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm waiting for roboticists to create artificial predators to take care of pests like this. Imagine someday invading an ant colony to kill the queen with some sort of ARMORED miniture robot.

Pfff, crazy ants, fire ants...

[fisted]

As long as the fucking soldier ants stay outside i'm fine.

said the aardvark

[arbitraryaardvark]

if only there were some organism in nature that was a natural foe of invading ant armies.

OH MY GOD!

[uberjack]

They'll short the instruments!

Dustpans full from the bathroom?

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought you said they like electronics. You keep a computer in the bathroom?

i for one...

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one welcome our new... oh, wait...

Crazy nanobots

[Anonymous Coward]

Crazy nanobots. Yeah, that should do the trick.

Does American wildlife....

[gatkinso]

...ever invade other parts of the world and cause problems? I seems that this must happen, but I never read about it.

Re:Does American wildlife....

[Anonyme Connard]

Do US troops count as wildlife?

Re:Does American wildlife....

[Anonymous Coward]

Blame the Europeans, Asians, and Norse. They colonized the Americas first.

Re:Does American wildlife....

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, a well known example of a north american lifeform infesting the world: Phylloxera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylloxera).

(sorry for digressing from the original topic)

Re: Controlling infestations nice corn meal

[Anonymous Coward]

Corn meal is cheaper than the cyan pepper I was using. Nice.

Has anybody tried diatomaceous earth?

[jnork]

Diatomaceous earth

They are trying to save us from the machines.

[yossarianuk]

It's obvious - Our friends the ants are trying to save mankind from the machines !!!

iWonder

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose that somehow MACs are immune.

What if....

[Anonymous Coward]

If I run RAID in my PC, will it prevent infestation? ; )

But where did they come from?

[mgcarley]

Sounds like something that's been imported. If I had to guess, I'd say India. Firstly because of the amount of times I've had to throw electronics away (hard-drives are especially painful) due to ants and secondly because places like Houston have large populations of Indian immigrants, many of whom probably shuffle back and forth once a year to visit family, so it's entirely possible there might be an ant or two in a suitcase.

Go watch Phase IV

[Anonymous Coward]

then you know what we are in for: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_IV

Adrenaline junkies in the insect world.

[Anonymous Coward]

Finally! Conclusive proof that humans aren't teh only animals addicted to adrenaline!

It's happening .....

[bronzemug]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_IV

This is why I love the North

[HaZardman27]

I lived in the South for nearly four years, and returning to the North was like entering paradise. Sure, it's cold during the winter, but spring through fall is fantastic and we have a nearly non-existent bug problem.