Crazy Raspberry Ants ?!?

[nhmaf]

OK, I really gotta ask what the heck is going on down there in Texas ??
Now, you have some sort of infestation with wild, "crazy" ants that love to
attack electrical wires ?   I hope that they don't come near your place, Justin !
I thought that keeping mice and chipmunks out of my bikes during the winter
was a chore, but what if a colony of these ants attacked your house, or (shudders)
your garage full of motorcycles ?

What's up with that ?    I have never seen ants like this before, and I've been to
some pretty wild rainforests/jungles before...

[Justin B.]

Some kind of new ant named after the exterminator that noticed them.  They're not up here yet but it is said they eat Fire Ants so it might be a worthwile tradeoff.  Fire Ants get into outside electrical stuffs too, short out relays in air conditioners, etc...

[nhmaf]

Boy, I don't know if that would be a good tradeoff - whenever there was a predator that ate other predators, they are usually more dangerous to have around !

Could be like one of those bad sci-fi movies from the 70's.... be careful, and keep your ant poison stock up !

[Melena]

Unfortunately they don't go for the ant poison from what I read.  That's part of the problem.  They don't know how to get rid of them.  And it's only taken a couple of years for them to spread out as far as they have.  There is more than one queen in the nest, so that makes them even harder to get rid of.

They are so small that they can get into all kinds of places the other ants don't get into, and they seem to be drawn to electrial stuff.  They'll even get into computers and screw them up.  I would definitely worry about motorcycle wiring with those around.  

They seem to be meat eaters, even eating baby birds, one endangered species in particular (probably a ground nesting bird), but also chow down on plants of all kinds.    They may eat fire ants, but they also will bite people. It's not as bad as the fire ant sting though.  They are very tiny, and just run around crazily and not walk along in a line like other ants.  That's where the "crazy" part comes in.  They think they came in with a freighter from someplace in South America - one of the islands maybe.  Definitely not a good thing to have around.  

Definitely a kind of "Twilight Zone" scenario going on here with these ants.

[MrRiden]

One of my all time favorite monster movies featured ants. Check your local listings!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047573/
rich