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The Rise of the Crazy Ants
www.scientificamerican.com ^ | Feb 13, 2014 | By Dina Fine Maron

Posted on 04/21/2014 7:02:53 AM PDT by Red Badger

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The Ant Sweeping the Southeastern U.S. Image: Joe A. MacGown with the Mississippi Entomological Museum

1 posted on 04/21/2014 7:02:53 AM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

I hate ants. I fell into a fire ant nest when I was about 5 and had nightmares for years afterwards. I cannot watch a documentary on ants. Snakes and spiders, no problem.... it’s ants. One reason I’ll not return to Texas.


2 posted on 04/21/2014 7:09:00 AM PDT by Mercat
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To: Red Badger

In other news, obama’s crazy aunt’s funeral is scheduled for Thursday...


3 posted on 04/21/2014 7:09:12 AM PDT by null and void (...if you are too sure of your place in heaven you might be too arrogant to actually get there.)
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To: Red Badger

Are these the crazy aunts everyone warned me about? Are they usually found in the attic?


4 posted on 04/21/2014 7:09:49 AM PDT by Right Brother
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To: Right Brother

“Are they usually found in the attic?”

No, silly. They are found at family get togethers... passed out on the toilet with their bloomers around their ankles. Silly, RB! :)


5 posted on 04/21/2014 7:15:47 AM PDT by momtothree
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To: Mercat

Then you’ll like the fact that these ants drive out fire ants.

These ants bite, but it’s just like a normal ant bite, not the festering pustules that fire ant bites cause..............


6 posted on 04/21/2014 7:16:36 AM PDT by Red Badger (Soon there will be another American Civil War. Will make the first one seem like a Tea Party........)
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To: Right Brother

No, they show up at Thanksgiving then talk to the turkey on the table..................


7 posted on 04/21/2014 7:17:30 AM PDT by Red Badger (Soon there will be another American Civil War. Will make the first one seem like a Tea Party........)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Garden Ping!......................


8 posted on 04/21/2014 7:18:24 AM PDT by Red Badger (Soon there will be another American Civil War. Will make the first one seem like a Tea Party........)
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To: Red Badger

Tawny Crazy ant invasion, that’s racist. Just “acts of love” don’t you know.


9 posted on 04/21/2014 7:19:05 AM PDT by februus
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To: Mercat

When I was a kid in the mid-60’s, we lived in texas. We had a sugar box above the fridge that turned out to be full of ants. When we traced the trail, it went out the back door and to a path they had created dirt path through our back yard lawn and down the alley to the point where we just stopped following. it.

In our current home (KY) last week we noticed some very small and dark ants in our bathroom. They would show up in ones or twos until a few days ago I noticed a few by the charger base of our electric tooth brush. When I picked it up it turned out there were thousands of them in it. I rinsed it out and they just kept coming. It was amazing that there were that many in thre.

I figured the electromagnetism must have somehow attracted them. For now the ant problem has completely disappeared.


10 posted on 04/21/2014 7:19:40 AM PDT by cuban leaf
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To: Mercat

…sorry….sometimes I can't help myself...

11 posted on 04/21/2014 7:20:08 AM PDT by moehoward
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To: Red Badger

I was battling with them for a few years until I figured out which poison to use to get rid of them (the liquid baits)


12 posted on 04/21/2014 7:21:46 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: Red Badger

13 posted on 04/21/2014 7:23:06 AM PDT by mkmensinger
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To: TexasFreeper2009

Fire ants or crazy ants?...............


14 posted on 04/21/2014 7:31:19 AM PDT by Red Badger (Soon there will be another American Civil War. Will make the first one seem like a Tea Party........)
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To: Red Badger

Sorry, wrong kind of crazy aunt.

15 posted on 04/21/2014 7:33:24 AM PDT by PLMerite
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To: cuban leaf

It may be that they are attracted to the acids...............


16 posted on 04/21/2014 7:37:31 AM PDT by Red Badger (Soon there will be another American Civil War. Will make the first one seem like a Tea Party........)
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To: Mercat

That would be wise. Though crazy ants don’t sting, there are such vast numbers of them that they overwhelm. A common story is that people do not know their yard has been taken over, so send their dog out there to do its business.

Just a short time later, the dog is frantic to get back inside because it is covered with ants. Once this happens, the dog will refuse to go out in that yard again. A similar story with people, that they will be covered up to their knees or even hips and get a panic response.


17 posted on 04/21/2014 7:48:19 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (WoT News: Rantburg.com)
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To: Red Badger

There is a biological trick used against fire ants, in which you get a glass jar and put a little honey in it, then set it next to their nest. When a bunch of ants get in there, pour in two cups of boiling water to kill them, then seal the jar and bring it inside.

Then you leave in in a cool, dark place for a couple of weeks, and hopefully some mold will grow on it. Then you pour it on their nest, and hopefully, it not only wipes out that nest, but one or two adjacent nests.

Since this trick seems to work for fire ants, I wonder how it might work against crazy ants.

There are a few problems, for example, there are no obvious above ground signs of their nests, which they exit and enter through small holes in the ground, even for a giant nest. So getting the plague inside it might be difficult.

But we won’t know unless we try.


18 posted on 04/21/2014 8:00:26 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (WoT News: Rantburg.com)
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To: Red Badger

I hate ants. They’re destructive and have a painful bite/sting.


19 posted on 04/21/2014 8:03:46 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Red Badger

crazy ants

I tried every poison imaginable and nothing worked against them (I actually think I heard them laughing at me and thanking me for the bath!), until I tried those liquid ant baits.


20 posted on 04/21/2014 8:12:50 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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