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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.'"
Try putting a router in your house. It might keep ants away too.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
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.
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?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
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.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Even the ants want to travel the electronic highway.. :)
Use those old Cisco routers from 10 yrs ago... as ant baits! :)
The Hacker and the Ants. Yes, if you overlook the many glaring differences, you might notice some passing similarities.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
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?
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...
I am John Hurt.
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.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
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.
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.
It's from Phase IV
"...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..."
It sounds like all one needs is a large electric bug zapper since they are already attracted to it.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
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.
You had me at "They don't sting like fire ants do...".
Come on, they are electric ants! Clearly, it came from Red Alert.
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.