It might sound like something from a Hitchcock film, but people, this is real life. Move over fire ants, there’s a new sheriff in town! Crazy ants, more specifically known as the Tawny crazy ants, a species native to Brazil and Argentina, are making their way across the southeastern United States . And they’re taking out fire ant colonies and disrupting ecosystems in their process and they don’t care who knows it. They’re like honey badgers. Except ants. They don’t give a… Crazy Ants Crazy ants are an invasive species with the potential to altar the ecological balance of the United States. Where fire ants once flourished, they’re being wiped out by this omnivorous South American ant. Less fire ants seems like a good thing, yes? Well, it’s not. Fire ants and humans coexist in harmony. We don’t touch them and they don’t touch us. (But if you do touch them, watch out!) Crazy ants are crazy. They’re in your homes! Nesting in your insulation! Where fire ants are content to stay in their own colonies, but crazy ants want to be in your colony. They build nests in walls, crawl spaces, house plants, and empty containers. And they don’t just build colonies. They build super colonies. (Of course they do. Because they’re crazy.) Researchers from the University of Texas note that some people want their fire ants back. The crazy ants “don’t sting like fire ants do, but they’re much bigger pests,” Ed LeBrun says. “You have to call pest control operators every three to four months just to keep the infestation under control. It’s very expensive.” Better or worse than calling the Ghostbusters? You be the judge. We’ll just be over here fortifying our defenses against the crazy ants.
Original post:
Crazy Ants Are Crazy
