Just wonderful - say hello to Nylanderia fulva
From the
Houston Chronicle:
Crazy ants are invading parts of the U.S., including Houston
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.
And talk about achieving fame:
The tiny invaders have become quite common in the Houston area, first discovered in 2002 by pest control worker Tom Rasberry. He alerted Texas A&M scientists of his discovery.
At one point they were called "Raspberry Crazy Ants" after the pest fighter. The scientific name is Nylanderia fulva, which doesn't quite have the ring of "crazy ants."
The ants should be contained where you find them and then exterminated. They thrive on human movement.
"You shouldn't move them around. They nest in anything, boxes, potted plants," says LeBrun. As the ants travel, they disrupt other ant populations. Their colonies survive, unlike fire ants.
There is more at the
Los Angeles Times:
Alien 'crazy ants' invading southern U.S
An invasion of alien "crazy ants" is making many residents of the U.S. Gulf Coast long for the old days of pesky, biting fire ants.
More:
Native to northern Argentina and southern Brazil, tawny crazy ants, or Nylanderia fulva, were discovered in a Houston suburb by a pest control worker in 2002. Populations since have fanned out through Texas and the Gulf Coast region as far as Florida, where 20 counties have active colonies, according to LeBrun, who published a study of the invasion in the aptly named journal Biological Invasions.
LeBrun believes the ants came to the U.S. through the Port of New Orleans. That�s how the Argentine ant got here in 1891; the black fire ant was first found near the port of Mobile, Ala., in 1918, and in the 1930s, the well-known and despised red fire ant showed up, pushing out the black fire and Argentine ants.
And of course, some moron somewhere will import the ant's natural predator from South America and it will find something else to be much more tasty -- a valuable insect -- and will leave these ants alone.
Hat tip to
Slashdot for the link...
Posted by DaveH at May 18, 2013 12:26 PM