Crazy Raspberry Ants Eat Electronics

First it was killer bees, then Argentine ants … Now, welcome our electronic-eating ant overlords:

It sounds like the plot of a farfetched science fiction movie. Unfortunately for the residents of Texas, it is very much a reality: billions of tiny reddish-brown ants have arrived onshore from a cargo ship and are hell-bent on eating anything electronic.

Computers, burglar alarm systems, gas and electricity meters, iPods, telephone exchanges – all are considered food by the flea-sized ants, for reasons that have left scientists baffled. [...]

Crazy is the the right word. The ants are known as “crazy rasberry ants”: crazy because they seem to move in a random scrum as opposed to marching in regimented lines, and rasberry after a pioneering exterminator, Tom Rasberry, who first identified them as a problem.

The ants – also known as paratrenicha species near pubens – have so far spread to five counties in the Houston area. Scientists are not sure from where they originate but they seem to be related to a type of ant from the Caribbean. “At this point it would be nearly impossible to eradicate the ants because they are so widely dispersed,” said Roger Gold, a Texas A&M University entomologist. He added that the only upside to the invasion was that the crazy rasberry ants ate fire ants, which sting humans during the long, hot Texas summers.

More bad news:

Worse, the ants refuse to die when sprayed with over-the-counter poison. Even killing the queen of a colony doesn’t do any good, because each colony has multiple queens.

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May 16, 2008 at 11:26 am by Alex
Category: Animal, Science & Tech

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24 comments to "Crazy Raspberry Ants Eat Electronics"

Pat Lathrop
May 16th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Windex kills all ants! I think I have these in NW Arkansas. They flocked to my power adapter.
Idil
May 16th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I live in Houston! Oh no!
Lore
May 16th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Now there is no hope for humankind.
Rich
May 16th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I hope they take their time getting to Dallas… in the meantime, maybe we could figure out how make ‘em into a food or fuel source.
Keudy
May 16th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Mother nature fights back.
karen
May 16th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
the end of the modern world from ants!
SenorMysterioso
May 16th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Im guessing this is a crazy botched experiment to weaponize ants for cyber warfare
unohav_1
May 16th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
When I moved from the Midwest to Houston 4 years ago, the apartment complex blamed an ongoing issue with the front security gate constantly quitting on these ants. Never hearing of such a thing before just made their excuse reek of bullturds and thought that they were too cheap to just fix the dern thing. So I guess there is actually validity to their claim, although they are still too cheap to fix other things that can’t be blamed on those crazy little critters.
Arty
May 16th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Good god, what’s next? An invasion by the invisible, radioactive flies armed with stingers?
Oomi
May 16th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
i wonder why they attack electronics.
Lasse
May 17th, 2008 at 1:54 am
Nature finally had enough.
Chuckette
May 17th, 2008 at 3:29 am
Evolution.
DCGaymer
May 17th, 2008 at 6:10 am
So they “eat” electronics?!? Maybe they’re actually building something down in the anthill.
ChrisW
May 17th, 2008 at 6:50 am
Perhaps they are attracted to the electric/magnetic fields.I wonder if they are attracted to devices which are unplugged or without batteries.
Le Sophiste
May 17th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Anyone else think the guy in the picture looks like Jaime from Mythbusters?
Jangaboo
May 17th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
You know how dumping electronics is really hazardous why not just feed all the electronics into this giant pool of ants to help the environment?
Julia
May 17th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
I can see why this would potentially be bad, but has anyone thought about the potential good? Don’t we have landfills upon landfills of old electronics that we thought could never be broken down? Now maybe there is a way to close that loop.
Thomas
May 17th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Hey, at least they eat fire ants. Those things suck.
tripleX
May 17th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Before I start worrying about the one ant that causes a nuclear war and ends civilization: What does it mean, ‘they eat electronics’? Do they eat computerchips? Or transistors? Or wire-insulation? Do they have acid-spit or something? Don’t the poor ants get constipated? What about getting electrocuted by small voltages? Questions, questions…
Jeremy
May 18th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Oh sweet lord. Not mah comp!
Thebes
May 18th, 2008 at 1:25 am
We had similar crazy ants when I lived in the Dominican Republic. Locals added about a teaspoon of kerosene to their mop water, mopped their all tile floors, and went out while airing their homes for a couple of hours. It stinks and I am not so sure about the safety or environmental consequences of this- but it worked pretty well at keeping the crazy ants out.
Chris Johnston
May 18th, 2008 at 6:55 am
“Houston, you have a problem.”

NASA should be worried about Johnson Space Center!
Kid
May 19th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Now at least there is finally a way to destroy the Matrix.
Man or Monster
May 19th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Am I the only one that’s annoyed that they named them Rasberry Ants because of an exterminator whose last name is Rasberry? It makes it sound like they eat raspberries, not electronics. They should have named them silicon ants or something.

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Crazy Raspberry Ants Eat Electronics

First it was killer bees, then Argentine ants … Now, welcome our electronic-eating ant overlords:

It sounds like the plot of a farfetched science fiction movie. Unfortunately for the residents of Texas, it is very much a reality: billions of tiny reddish-brown ants have arrived onshore from a cargo ship and are hell-bent on eating anything electronic.

Computers, burglar alarm systems, gas and electricity meters, iPods, telephone exchanges – all are considered food by the flea-sized ants, for reasons that have left scientists baffled. [...]

Crazy is the the right word. The ants are known as “crazy rasberry ants”: crazy because they seem to move in a random scrum as opposed to marching in regimented lines, and rasberry after a pioneering exterminator, Tom Rasberry, who first identified them as a problem.

The ants – also known as paratrenicha species near pubens – have so far spread to five counties in the Houston area. Scientists are not sure from where they originate but they seem to be related to a type of ant from the Caribbean. “At this point it would be nearly impossible to eradicate the ants because they are so widely dispersed,” said Roger Gold, a Texas A&M University entomologist. He added that the only upside to the invasion was that the crazy rasberry ants ate fire ants, which sting humans during the long, hot Texas summers.

More bad news:

Worse, the ants refuse to die when sprayed with over-the-counter poison. Even killing the queen of a colony doesn’t do any good, because each colony has multiple queens.

Link