Houston .... we have a problem!

[Dragonlady8]

Any of ya having issues with the ants?


Ants swarm over Houston area, fouling electronics

By LINDA STEWART BALL, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 2 minutes ago
In what sounds like a really low-budget horror film, voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers.

The hairy, reddish-brown creatures are known as "crazy rasberry ants" — crazy, because they wander erratically instead of marching in regimented lines, and "rasberry" after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who did battle against them early on.

"They're itty-bitty things about the size of fleas, and they're just running everywhere," said Patsy Morphew of Pearland, who is constantly sweeping them off her patio and scooping them out of her pool by the cupful. "There's just thousands and thousands of them. If you've seen a car racing, that's how they are. They're going fast, fast, fast. They're crazy."

The ants — formally known as "paratrenicha species near pubens" — have spread to five Houston-area counties since they were first spotted in Texas in 2002.

The newly recognized species is believed to have arrived in a cargo shipment through the port of Houston. Scientists are not sure exactly where the ants came from, but their cousins, commonly called crazy ants, are found in the Southeast and the Caribbean.

"At this point, it would be nearly impossible to eradicate the ant because it is so widely dispersed," said Roger Gold, a Texas A&M University entomologist.

The good news? They eat fire ants, the stinging red terrors of Texas summers.

But the ants also like to suck the sweet juices from plants, feed on such beneficial insects as ladybugs, and eat the hatchlings of a small, endangered type of grouse known as the Attwater prairie chicken.

They also bite humans, though not with a stinger like fire ants.

Worse, they, like some other species of ants, are attracted to electrical equipment, for reasons that are not well understood by scientists.

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

Exterminators say calls from frustrated homeowners and businesses are increasing because the ants — which are starting to emerge by the billions with the onset of the warm, humid season — appear to be resistant to over-the-counter ant killers.

"The population built up so high that typical ant controls simply did no good," said Jason Meyers, an A&M doctoral student who is writing his dissertation on the one-eighth-inch-long ant.

It's not enough just to kill the queen. Experts say each colony has multiple queens that have to be taken out.

At the same time, the ants aren't taking the bait usually left out in traps, according to exterminators, who want the Environmental Protection Agency to loosen restrictions on the use of more powerful pesticides.

And when you do kill these ants, the survivors turn it to their advantage: They pile up the dead, sometimes using them as a bridge to cross safely over surfaces treated with pesticide.

"It looked like someone had come along and poured coffee granules all around the perimeter of the rooms," said Lisa Calhoun, who paid exterminators $1,200 to treat an infestation of her parents' home in the Houston suburb of Pearland.

The Texas Department of Agriculture is working with A&M researchers and the EPA on how to stop the ants.

"This one seems to be like lava flowing and filling an entire area, getting bigger and bigger," said Ron Harrison, director of training for the big pest-control company Orkin Inc.

[J_DOGG]

Scary stuff.

Even more scary - this is the same principal as Bio-Terrorism - our Government would not be able to eradicate anything and will quarantine the infected.
Yup -just like in the movies... are you vaccine worthy - better check again cuz the Government has a list and you and I are not on it.... and Will Smith will not be able to save you....

We simply do not have the resources in place to A) distribute a vaccine to and B) the man power to distribute (vaccinate) quickly enough to be worth a dam.

[Dees]

conspiracy much???

[Sandman4432]

Wow, and I thought I've watched I Am Legend too many times....lol

[Wakebrad]

Crap. that's pretty crazy. If it's spreading around Houston this fast it'll probably be here to Dallas within a decade. Hopefully if they are from the Caribbean they like the humidity and will stay the hell down there!

[NKCrider]

J DOGG isnt that much of a conspiracy theorist....

[goofyboy]

great. houston is on the map once again. heard on the radio this morning that the government scientist are comin on over.

Wakebrad - they maybe there sooner than a decade... some arsehole from Houston might bring you guys a care package...

[J_DOGG]

I'm not sayn this is the bio- terrorism - I'm sayn this is how it would pan out WHEN it happens.

A true conspiracy theorist would be tryn to tie our Government to the infestation of these crazy ants..

But YES - for the record I question everything, never trust anything the news outlets and Government is telling us and make it a point NOT to conform to standards..


I guess it's funny that't I'm a programmer at a Law Firm working in an evironment all about conforming to standards....
Life is funny like that...LOL...

[NKCrider]

[Dragonlady8]

Which would you prefer Ants or Frogs?

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2008/05/15/calahan.frog.invasion.kget

[JoeyJojo]

STOP RIPPING ME OFF! ~ Moses