‘Crazy Ants’: The ants that destroy electronics march into Georgia

[hunter]

8. I've managed to make peace with our Argentine ants...

... which have a similar capacity to overwhelm other ant species.

We don't use insecticides in our house or garden. We do use Frontline or similar insecticides on our dogs, especially when we visit places infested by ticks.

Really, the only irritating thing the ants do is raise aphids and scale insects in our garden but our flocks of noisy little birds are quite adept at grabbing those insects before the ants can swarm to protect them.

The "crazy ants" seem to be sensitive to magnetic fields. Their "attraction" to electronics is an accident of evolution, much like a moth's "attraction" to lights. Their navigation systems get messed up.

I rather hope the Argentine ants remain the dominant species here. I've finally got them figured out and I don't want to have to start again.

Insecticides are almost always a bad idea. All you are doing is clearing the territory for some obnoxious insecticide resistant species like cockroaches. I never see cockroaches. I'm sure our ants and spiders eat them.