Hey TBO, You're ****ed...

[Doctor Destiny 41]

DALLAS - 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.

 

Original Link - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080514/ap_on_re_us/texas_ants

[Saracen 16]

Tough bastards and more intelligent than your average 6-legged fiend. My my, yep TBO you're screwed!

 

But hey look at the bright side, if those ants invade his property and crap out his comp, at least we'll have some long overdue peace and quiet around here.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

Only possible if Luk3us gets invaded.

[TheBlackOut 7]

Dammit, I knew my experiment leaked, but this is worse than I feared.... Dammit. I will have to go ahead with my plan sooner than I expected, no matter.

[Luk3us 63]

rofl super ants!

 

First Texas, then the world!

 

 

[Sonic 296]

[sith_wampa 6]

They have been spotted at NASA's Johnson Space Center

First Texas, then the world, then space!

[Dr. Rodney McKay 0]

I'd love to see those ants come up to Minnesota. See if they make it through our lovely winter that lasts from as early as October to as late as May.

Edited May 16, 2008 by Dr. Rodney McKay

[Mina Synd 0]

yet another reason for me to avoid america o.O; but lawl... super ants... those critters are way too smart XD; why do governments try to make biological weapons? they should just take nests of those ants and drop them in a target country xD; it'll be like in marabunta =O *watches random person disappear into moving redblack sea of ants and is swallowed whole* X3;

[Luk3us 63]

How do you know someone hasn't already done that?

[Guest Rabbit]

I LOL'd terribly at Sonic's post.

[Mina Synd 0]

it's possible it may have been done before o.o many other animals and critters have been used in warfare before... i just hope the terrorists don't get that idea into their heads. i do not fancy those little critters living on my street D= *gives the terrorists ideas* >>;

[Louis EX 0]

Thank god I live in asia...

[Doctor Destiny 41]

And I live in the midwest. Brutal winters aren't so bad it seems.

[Sonic 296]

I LOL'd terribly at Sonic's post.

First thing I thought off when reading the original post :lol:

[Dr. Rodney McKay 0]

DD, Missouri has no torturous winters like Minnesota. <_<

[Doctor Destiny 41]

DD, Missouri has no torturous winters like Minnesota. <_<

Not compared to yours, no but relatively speaking, our winters are just as evil.

[Mina Synd 0]

thank god for the uk. rarely any noticable weather XD except for those rare occassions with snow or hail (and not that much of it) the most we get is medium rain xD a couple of times we've had fence panels fall over in our garden but that's about it o.O nice and peaceful here xD

[Doctor Destiny 41]

That's the problem with Britain. It's always the same. No sense of adventure.

[TheBlackOut 7]

Yea, in Texas and most of the South it can be no clouds then one second you got a major thunderstorm on your ass.

 

I love it.

[Luk3us 63]

That's the problem with Britain. It's always the same. No sense of adventure.

 

Yeah, that and the weather is truly terrible. Its not oh, its going to rain today, its OMFG SUN! OMFG OMFG FIRST TIME IN 5 MONTHS! Oh wait, its gone. Damn.

 

 

[Mina Synd 0]

how would you know what the weather is like here? o.O have you even been? infact it hardly ever rains... usually it's just a nice cool breeze and sunny weather o.o; actually at the moment we're going through a heatwave xD;

[Luk3us 63]

Its called a stereotype. And they are always right.

[Inferno 22]

So true

[Mina Synd 0]

i forgot to tell you how much i hate you since the last topic >_>;