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How Ants Survive Flooding by Forming Giant Rafts
National Geographic ^ | 10/06/2015 | Brian Clark Howard

Posted on 10/09/2015 10:23:05 AM PDT by Purdue77

When waters start to flood a fire ant colony, they take evasive action. Worker ants link legs and mouths together, weaving a raft in a process that can take less than two minutes (see pictures).

(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...


TOPICS: Outdoors; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: die; fireants; should
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To: Hot Tabasco
The floods here in South Carolina have brought millions of fire ants out of the Francis Marion Nat’l Forrest.
These” Ant mats” are yards across. Of course they're no more creepy then hundreds of snakes in the trees. Deer carcases are everywhere as well as any other small critters you can think of.
21 posted on 10/09/2015 10:58:06 AM PDT by Robe (Rome did not create a great empire by talking, they did it by killing all those who opposed them)
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To: Sacajaweau

“That’s why I use boiling water to eliminate them.”

No need for that. Just stir up their nests. When they come out, spray em with black Krylon. When they go back inside and see they are all black, they’ll stop working and start killing each other.


22 posted on 10/09/2015 10:59:49 AM PDT by DesertRhino ("I want those feeble minded asses overthrown,,,")
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To: blueunicorn6

Of course not. It was a 2500 ant Mercury.


23 posted on 10/09/2015 11:03:18 AM PDT by Purdue77
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To: DesertRhino
spray em with black Krylon. When they go back inside and see they are all black, they’ll stop working and start killing each other.


24 posted on 10/09/2015 11:03:37 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco (<i>)
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To: Purdue77

Fire ant bites never go away. After the blister the bite is there in some fashion a bump or a scar. During the season, when the young queens leave the nest the swarms look like mosquito swarms “The Naked Jungle” Deadly in Texas not even frogs, turtles are spared. They must have been put here for some reason....but the answer to that has not yet been found.


25 posted on 10/09/2015 11:05:57 AM PDT by V K Lee
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To: V K Lee

Here in SC, we see the ant mounds appear overnight. It’s amazing. My wife pours bleach down the mound. I prefer to use poison crystals that the ants carry back to the nest for consumption.


26 posted on 10/09/2015 11:10:39 AM PDT by Purdue77 (Nature still amazes me.)
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To: Hot Tabasco

When I lived in VA, I watched two diverse ant colonies meet on an ant trail. Apparently, they didn’t like one another. The battle ensued, but I didn’t have the time to see which one won. When I returned ant carcasses littered the trail.


27 posted on 10/09/2015 11:13:26 AM PDT by Purdue77 (Nature still amazes me.)
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To: rktman
Kinda what I was thinkin’. Ants smarter/more adaptable than us.

Unless the fire ants can float on flaming gasoline, I'll adapt faster than them ;-), but your point is noted.

28 posted on 10/09/2015 11:13:40 AM PDT by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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To: Robe

Quite a post.

Thanks.

These sort of real life tidbits are great.

More of them would be welcome.


29 posted on 10/09/2015 11:14:15 AM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: Purdue77
Nothing new here. Our property in Brazoria County Texas is covered with fire ant mounds. The ants came on the flood water of Oyster Creek and it flooded when the Brazos River flooded.
30 posted on 10/09/2015 11:19:17 AM PDT by Ditter (God Bless Texas!)
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To: SampleMan

I HATE those little sobs.


31 posted on 10/09/2015 11:20:46 AM PDT by rktman (Enlisted in the Navy to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?!)
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To: rktman
they have better survival instincts than the people in the Lower 9th Ward.
32 posted on 10/09/2015 11:23:34 AM PDT by angcat
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To: Purdue77

33 posted on 10/09/2015 12:00:42 PM PDT by frithguild (The warmth and goodness of Gaia is a nuclear reactor in the Earth's core that burns Thorium)
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To: Purdue77
It is diversity until it eliminates all other opposition.


34 posted on 10/09/2015 12:10:12 PM PDT by frithguild (The warmth and goodness of Gaia is a nuclear reactor in the Earth's core that burns Thorium)
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To: JoeProBono

The ants have their purpose; otherwise they would not have
been created.


35 posted on 10/09/2015 12:19:06 PM PDT by Twinkie (John 3:16)
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To: Purdue77

There is only one way to treat fire ants....

36 posted on 10/09/2015 12:20:23 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: V K Lee

If you rub the mashed leaves from an impatiens plant on fresh bites- or the wild jewelweed, there will be no pain, no bump, no scar, or at worst not much of one.


37 posted on 10/09/2015 12:24:33 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Twinkie

Fire ants have no purpose but to bit sting and make life generally miserable for humans.


38 posted on 10/09/2015 12:29:27 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: AppyPappy
A few drops of Dawn will fix this problem.

Yup. My thoughts exactly.

They're depending on the surface tension of the water to keep them afloat.

Destroy that they they drown.

39 posted on 10/09/2015 12:38:03 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: Autonomous User
“These guys are survivors like cockroaches and Liberals , you’ll never be rid of them.”
40 posted on 10/09/2015 1:44:12 PM PDT by varon (Don't point that finger at me unless you're prepared to have it broken off!)
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