Flodds, drought, pestilence, and now....'Hairy crazy ants' invade from Texas to Miss.

[dixiegrrrrl]

NEW ORLEANS — It sounds like a horror movie: Biting ants invade by the millions. A camper's metal walls bulge from the pressure of ants nesting behind them. A circle of poison stops them for only a day, and then a fresh horde shows up, bringing babies. Stand in the yard, and in seconds ants cover your shoes.

snip..
The flea-sized critters are called crazy because each forager scrambles randomly at a speed that your average picnic ant, marching one by one, reaches only in video fast-forward. They're called hairy because of fuzz that, to the naked eye, makes their abdomens look less glossy than those of their slower, bigger cousins.

And they're on the move in Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. In Texas, they've invaded homes and industrial complexes, urban areas and rural areas. They travel in cargo containers, hay bales, potted plants, motorcycles and moving vans. They overwhelm beehives — one Texas beekeeper was losing 100 a year in 2009. They short out industrial equipment.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44740822/ns/technology_and_science-science/

[Tesha]

1. Welcome to the new world (the one Republican politicians don't believe in). (NT)

[Lochloosa]

2. Pics

[eilen]

3. OMG, I frigging called this last August.

Talking w/my Mom, I said next will come the pestilence... to bad they (the bugs) were too late for the Prayerarama.

All you sane Southerners, please, the welcome mat is out for you in the Rust Belt where we have rain, no crazy ants nor wild fires. You will need warm boots and winter coats and a snow shovel though.

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. Very nasty, like tea partiers, only cuddlier.

On second thought, screw both species.

[leeroysphitz]

5. I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Good news: they eat fire ants.

Which we have by the TONS all over down here.
Bad news: these guys more than make up for smallness by their sheer overwhelming numbers.

[TwilightGardener]

7. As much as I bitch about snow and -20 F temps, it's good to have

a limit on bugs.

[WinkyDink]

8. That's what I love about the South!

Hey---we Yankees have been admonished not to criticize.