Billions of electronic-eating 'crazy raspberry ants' invade Texas

While we were all worried about avian flu, SARS, Big Foot, malicious extraterrestrials, Africanized Killer Bees, and the Patriot Act, a new species of ant has invaded Texas and this tiny little critter has an appetite for electronic equipment. Well, I'll let you read the excerpt from the article and encourage you to read the full article.

It sounds like the plot of a far fetched science fiction movie. Unfortunately for the residents of Texas, it is very much a reality: billions of tiny reddish-brown ants have arrived onshore from a cargo ship and are hell-bent on eating anything electronic.

Computers, burglar alarm systems, gas and electricity meters, iPods, telephone exchanges – all are considered food by the flea-sized ants, for reasons that have left scientists baffled.

Having ruined pumps at a sewage facility, the ants are now marching towards Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre and William P. Hobby airport, Houston, putting state officials in a panic. “They’re itty-bitty things, and they’re just running everywhere,” said Patsy Morphew, a resident of Pearland, on the Gulf Coast.

www.timesonline.co.uk...

As the article states, about the only good thing about these creatures is that they eat fire ants which have plagued the South for longer than I can remember.

Anytime a new species enters an new environment, there is almost always negative effects, even if the introduction was made by those who believed that the new species might help to control an existing pest.

On the surface, this appears to be one of those inadvertent introductions that comes from one of the busiest ports in the world, but if you look at what these bugs do and how hard they are to kill, they seem to be tailor-made by a some mad scientist intent on destroying one of the great advances in the history of civilization.

When I read this, I thought of a house that a former girlfriend occupied in Houston some twenty years ago.

She had ants that would come out of a electrical outlet in her kitchen and these little buggers were very tiny and seemingly impossible to kill. I have to wonder if there is a connection.

But, what will be the outcome of this phenomenon. These little guys don't seem to be satisfied with just eating up your home electronics. They have their sights set on eating up the public infrastructure as the article states.

They've already destroyed a sewage plant and are on the march to the Johnson Space Center and Hobby Airport. How much havoc could they wreak by eating up NASA and a major regional airport and how long will it take to reach Houston International and the business district.

Right now, there seems to be nothing that can control these voracious omnivores who are as fond of plants, birds and other insects as they are with the hardware that helps to tie a world together.

I'm not one to sensationalize or to seek conspiracy where there is little evidence of such. If there is a conspiracy here, perhaps it's the ants who have conspired, but you never know. These tiny terrorists may be in league with vermin of the two-legged variety who would love to do us harm and maybe the ants are a form of biological warfare.

Whatever the case, let us hope that Orkin is working night and day to eradicate these diminutive, destructive demons of entomology.

www.npr.org...

video.aol.com...

www.associatedcontent.com...

www.informationweek.com...


[edit on 2008/5/16 by GradyPhilpott]

I can see the kind of problems that Texas is going through at the minute with these Ants - they aren't like your typical swarm either.

The source states that each colony has multiple queens, but that's something of an understatement - Another genus of ant referred to as "Crazy" is "Anoplolepis gracilipes" which was apparently documented in northern australia as one of the "most invasive species in the world".

These things form supercolonies, which can contain up to 300 Queens.

If you want my opinion, i really would not be surprised if some smart-alec scientist working for the CIA* has successfully managed to gene-splice a Queen so that the workers will be attracted to copper or other electronic-critical materials.

My reason?

This "paratrenicha species near pubens" genus is most closely related to the "Caribbean crazy Ant", similar to Anoplolepis gracilipes, which are not documented for going after electronics.

This is a new Genus of Ant.

I wouldn't be surprised if people have to go so far as to coat their electronics with poison in order to beat these new threats in electronic warfare.



[edit on 16-5-2008 by Anti-Tyrant]

*i originally put NASA accidently, i don't think NASA would be responsible for trying to destroy it's own electronics though.



[edit on 16-5-2008 by Anti-Tyrant]

Wow....just....wow.....makes you think who is really top of the food chain

I heard somewhere that the biggest ants nest found stretched from northern Italy to Northern spain....so i did a google search

www.sciencemag.org...

Semms that somewhere was right....imagine finding the biggest ants nest in the world consist of these little blighters....we could lose all our electronic stuff they all decided to go on a roam.....seems like something from science fiction.

Pity they could not eat the super computers, that do the mind control, and give us all some piece. lol

Now this story is very weird, if true.

I lost a laptop to them, or similar tiny redbrown ant creatures.

I had noticed they were there and got them out (ant spray) and taken my precautions to protect me against further invasion. It's pretty simple; whatever you don't want them to get to, you place within a barier of water, it's an ancient old way in this SE Asian country, you put the legs of your larder in water and the food is safe.

For my laptop I made an arrangement with a board as top resting in a basin of water (remember to lead the cords through the water too) and it was safe.

However it got slower and slower and unstable. Some month later it died in the midle of a download. When it was opened there were excrements, small stains all over inside it. They had slowly eaten into the circuits and killed it.

BTW, ants are known to be attracted to electricity.

Maybe they'll be the coming masters of the world.

Awesome story.

And your right, seems like something out of Sci-Fi.

Did they have any leads on where the ants originated from?

If they arrived by container ship, it leads me to believe the amount that came ashore would have to of been small (could be wrong), thus meaning they are breeding with domestic ants- Is that even possible?

Perhaps the government could lay a massive central pylon, electrify it to beyond the 230V of normal household current and draw the ants to the pylon that way. Kinda like the magnesium blocks used to prevent rust on ships- sacrificial protection.

How are these ants surviving electrocution?!

Originally posted by 44soulslayer

How are these ants surviving electrocution?!

They're not, they're just attracted to anything that gives off heat - it's also speculated that perhaps they can sense electro-magnetic fields, so that might be what's attracting them.

Nice idea though, but we'd need dozens of them most likely.

[edit on 16-5-2008 by Anti-Tyrant]

Hmmm maybe I should have taken my friends hair brained idea of starting an ant-eater farm after all.hehe

I think the Texas government will probably jump the gun and start spraying insecticide everywhere first.

my only reply to this is " thats kinda cool in a highly disturbing way " ants that eat electronics .

I'm not a Christian (anymore), but this story reminds me eerily of the biblical plagues... Part of the End Times?

On the plus side.
They EAT FIRE ANTS.

Our data is safe where I work.
because I use RAID arrays on all my servers..(sorry bad joke).

In a way this is a lot more frightening than killer bees. They eat infrastructure.

I don't know which is more concerning.

The fact these ants eat non-organics
or the fact that these ants eat other ants.

Whats next, humans??


Beware of military made nanotechnology. This stuff is real, and we are about to face Hell on earth.

No wonder the elitists are going underground. Cowards!

That's ridiculous.

I hope they don't come up to the Northeast...

Lions and tigers and ANTS oh my!!

When I saw this on the news I thought "oh great!! There goes my new pool!!"

Earlier this year I had hell with fire ants. Took me forever to get rid of the lil basturds! They were coming up through the vent in my stove.

reply to post by khunmoon


OMG Please help! Whatbug spray did you use?? They're crawling out of MY laptop and if they dodn't die quick I could lose my most prized possetion. I'm only 14 and I worked so hard to get it!!! Please e-mail at [email protected] PLEEEAAAAASSSSEEEEE!!!!

All my life, every residence I ave lived in , I had a problem with ants, until now.

The house I bought , I had inspected for termites. It was positive. So they did the treatment. They said the treatment also gets rid of ants.

True. No ants here. My neighbor told me before this was done, the previous residence had an ant problem here.

Wonder if it would work with those guys?

Oh sweet Mother Nature.
This is yet another example of the Earth readjusting and correcting itself to the pollutants introduced by Man.
I guess now it's perfectly ok to fill the landfills with old electronic gadgets.

How will the environmentalists react to this?

First, thanks for the wonderful post Grady!

Second, I think it's a boon for those companies that manufacture insecticides.

Third, this will be contained, thank God. Poisoned baits are fairly effective in my experience. I wonder if they would come up with a bait fashioned as a fake electronic device to attract these bastards