Florida and Texas are being invaded by a new pest: crazy ants.
Crazy ants are tiny, busy bugs that rival fire ants in the damage they cause. They don't sting quite as badly as fire ants, but the damage they do is far worse. Swarms of crazy ants cause billions of dollars worth of damage to wiring, electronics and wildlife. They swarm over anything: lawns, humans, buildings or anything in their way.
"Crazy ants" swarm exterminator Tom Rasberry's hands in a Pearland, Texas, field with a heavy infestation.
Called crazy ants because they scramble in all directions rather than trudging along a straight track, the ants carpet the ground and swarm over anything in their way -- plants, animals or humans. Scientists think the ants originated in the Caribbean.
The bugs, technically known as paratrechina species near pubens, form multiqueen supercolonies and breed by the millions, especially during the summer. They have now spread to 14 Texas counties, mostly around Houston, but have been found in three new spots this summer, including San Antonio 200 miles to the west.
In Florida, similar insects are known as Caribbean crazy ants (paratrechina pubens), and they have been spreading rapidly for about five years, said Roberto M. Pereira, associate research scientist at the University of Florida.
In Texas, the bugs are known as Rasberry crazy ants, after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator in this Houston suburb who has been warning about the new ants since he first found them in 2002. They "pose a clear and present danger to our way of life," he warns on a blog he devotes to the bugs (http://crazyrasberryants.blogspot.com/).
Across south Texas, the insects have been shorting out electrical sockets, air conditioners and, at Cindy Fitch's house in Pearland, the transformer that controls her floodlights. She has replaced it three times in the past two years.
Texas beekeepers have reported that the ants are killing their beehives, which is awful, especially considering what a hard time honey bee colonies are having these days. Beekeeper Jerry Stroope of Pearland, Texas, who has 2,000 hives, says "It's not spread out far enough to where the industry is abuzz about this problem -- but it will be." The U.S. Department of Agriculture is looking into the problem, but local residents are not impressed with the lackluster federal response to this dangerous pest.
