Crazy Ants are taking over and we're not talking about the ones that embarrass you at holiday gatherings. Tawny crazy ants are spreading throughout the Gulf Coast and they're no match for exterminators.
Tawny crazy ants are originally from South America, but they've found their way to the U.S. and they're spreading quickly. They were discovered in Texas in 2002 and have also been found in Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida. They are close to invading Alabama as well, Reuters reports.
Despite their name, tawny crazy ants are not necessarily harmful as they don't sting or bit like fire ants. The main concern is how fast the multiply. They grow in large numbers and like to live in warm, tight spaces including around electrical equipment, under floorboards and in car engines, so they're often found in homes.
Houston environmental attorney knows firsthand what its like to deal with them. He has to release chemicals in his home and around his 40-acre property every few days to try to kill them. Once the ants die, he has to scoop them up with shovels since there are so many. He then repeats the process a few days later.
"It's literally a huge problem," Stuckey told Reuters. It has gotten so bad that Stuckey and several other landowners have allowed researchers to use their property to learn more about the insects.
There have even been in the mall area of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, however they haven't caused any major damage.
"We are principally concerned about the possible damage to infrastructure such as electronics, employees' automobiles, and our facilities," NASA Houston Facilities Management and Operations Chief Shelia Powell told Reuters.
NASA has a local extermination company take care of the crazy ants. The company has a temporary strategy of frequently applying multiple products to kill the insects. However there's no completely effective way to take care of them as traditional chemicals don't work.
"You almost have to see it to believe what a nuisance these can become," Robert Puckett, an associate research scientist at Texas A&M University told Reuters. "I've been in people's houses where they show me trash bags full of ants they've swept up."
"You can spray and it will kill tens of thousands, but they come back," said Stuckey. "If you took a restaurant-sized pepper jug and poured it on the floor, that's how thick they are.This year's been the worst ever."
The ants tend to catch rides on in landscaping and building materials and sometimes on shoes or in cars.
Tom Rasberry, a Houston exterminator, told Reuters that the ants have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. The state and federal funds to eliminate the bus have been slow, but some funding has been dedicated towards researching the crazy ants.
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