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Swarming Ants Destroy Electronics in Texas
Posted by
timothy
on Thu May 15, 2008 07:34 AM
from the where's-tiny-ender-when-you-need-him dept.
from the where's-tiny-ender-when-you-need-him dept.
AntOverlords writes "Voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area,
shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers. They have ruined pumps at sewage pumping stations, fouled computers and at least one homeowner's gas meter, and caused fire alarms to malfunction. They have been spotted at NASA's Johnson Space Center and close to Hobby Airport, though they haven't caused any major problems there yet."
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First computer bug (Score:4, Informative)
Interestingly, the first ever computer bug was also of the 'physical' variety - See here [jamesshuggins.com]
Re:First computer bug (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:First computer bug (Score:5, Informative)
From the article you link to:
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Re:First computer bug (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:First computer bug (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:First computer bug (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:First computer bug (Score:5, Funny)
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Ob. post (Score:4, Funny)
Blame Apache (Score:5, Funny)
It was only a matter of time ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It was only a matter of time ... (Score:5, Funny)
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Undocumented insects (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Undocumented insects (Score:5, Interesting)
Did anyone else read where these ants kill fire ants?
Yeah, and "the ants also like to suck the sweet juices from plants, feed on such beneficial insects as ladybugs, and eat the hatchlings of a small, endangered type of grouse known as the Attwater prairie chicken." So while I am all for eliminating fire ants, maybe not at the expense of ladybugs and endangered animals? (well, ok, it's just a prairie chicken)
I liked this part the best: "And when you do kill these ants, the survivors turn it to their advantage: They pile up the dead, sometimes using them as a bridge to cross safely over surfaces treated with pesticide." We're in trouble now.
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Invasive Species (Score:5, Insightful)
Fire ants, Killer bees, Chestnut blight, Dutch Elm Disease, Sudden Oak Death (all invasive and here because of lax monitoring).
No natural predators I bet, and not big news until they spread out across the U.S and degrade the living conditions in your area.
The US should really have much more stringing inspections of container shipping. We can send a man to the moon but not inspect cargo. right?
We rely on cheap goods as imports but fail to take into account the true cost of invasive species control. It is huge.
Re:Invasive Species (Score:5, Funny)
Fire ants, Killer bees, Chestnut blight, Dutch Elm Disease, Sudden Oak Death (all invasive and here because of lax monitoring).
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And your solution is? (Score:5, Insightful)
Go and look at a container ship, then tell me how you propose to inspect it. Have you any idea how many inspectors would be needed, or how long it would take?
Actually, ants are the least of your worries. It's been pointed out by security specialists that container ships are an ideal way for terrorists to bring in the parts of nuclear weapons. While they're pretending to make things safe at airports, there's a 20-lane superhighway wide open into almost all developed countries, consisting of uninspectable shipping containers and artic trailers. Bomb parts can have their radiation reduced to background levels easily enough, put them in a container full of auto parts and nothing will detect them.
It's one world, for good or bad, and we have to live with it. Blaming foreigners is unlikely to be productive. These things are a cost that we bear because we no longer live in isolated tribal groups or city states, with an average GNP per head of about 600 1980 dollars, or whatever the last estimate was.
Realistically, even a 15kt bomb being exploded by terrorists in the middle of NY or Boston would do less harm to civilisation than natural causes do from time to time, and these ants are equally unlikely to do severe long term damage.
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Re:And your solution is? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but try saying that about 9/11 and see what reactions you'll get by most people. The difference, apparently, is intent. I don't get it either, but 3000 [wikipedia.org] people killed by a bunch of madmen is somehow worse that 15000 to 40000 [yahoo.com] people killed by a natural catastrophe. Heck, the 2004 Tsunami "only" claimed 225000 people [wikipedia.org].
On the other hand, with a population of over 8 million people, a nuclear bomb isn't even in the same ballpark as the above mentioned earthquake. An unannounced nuclear attack on NYC is going to dwarf regular natural disasters. (Ignoring supervolcanoes and meteor impacts)
For reference: 10 deadliest natural disasters [wikipedia.org]
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Re:And your solution is? (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, it triggered only one war. The war on Afghanistan, the other one is in fact unrelated. As far as the erosion of rights and privacy: well, we allowed it, didn't we? ("You", actually, since I'm not a US citizen) Why weren't you on the street protesting to protect your rights? Why aren't you actively fighting to retain and reclaim your rights and privacy? Ranting on slashdot doesn't really count, you know.
I know it's cliché, but by allowing the government to take away your rights, you let the terrorists win.
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Re:And your solution is? (Score:5, Insightful)
Then some rich people would lose some money while a bunch of other rich people would make some.
"What if it were a nuclear power plant supplying electricity to millions of homes?"
Oh my gosh. Power might go off for 2 days while the problem was sorted out. Do you remember the ice storm in Canada in 1998? Didn't think so.
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Voids Warranty? (Score:5, Interesting)
in training there were a few tales floating around of people calling in with their receiver boxes killed by ants.
Locusts (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Locusts (Score:5, Insightful)
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Treat that with penecillin (Score:5, Funny)
Is it just me, or does that sound like some type of STD?
Re:Treat that with penecillin (Score:5, Funny)
It's a baby, you insensitive clod!
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Leiningen versus the Ants (Score:5, Interesting)
Happened to me (Score:5, Interesting)
I live in the tropics, and for some bizarre reason, this colony of red ants that have taken residence at our place have started making beelines for my PCs
At one point I was wondering why some keys in my keyboard stopped responding when I found the damn ants had eaten the rubber linings under the keys!
I've now had to resort to drawing circles of protection around my electronics with insecticide chalk to keep the damn critters out...
Re:Happened to me (Score:4, Interesting)
Even a rinsed out soft drinks can has enough sugar to attract ants.
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Re:Happened to me (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Happened to me (Score:5, Informative)
I put a large drop of this stuff on a piece of cardboard and left it on in a corner of the kitchen counter. Within a day, the ants formed a crowded circle around the drop voraciously drinking it up to the point that their bellies swelled up, with a long line of ants going to wherever under the sink they came from. Over several days they went through a third of a small bottle of the stuff! You could see a few apparently coming back for seconds, weak and shaky. Then they were suddenly gone, totally and completely. This was 2 years ago, and they've never come back.
The Terro bottle says it's for "sweet-eating ants" - I thought all ants loved sweets, so I don't know what that means.
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Re:Happened to me (Score:5, Informative)
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Not that uncommon. (Score:5, Informative)
Unless boxes are very tightly sealed, they'll get into the electronics and destroy them - usually by creating shorts or damaging PCB tracks.
We've had a few boards sent back that reeked so strongly of ants that you could smell it through the packaging. Generally, they're too damaged to be worth repairing.
Anecdotally, I've heard of a number of other companies having similar problems with installations in tropical areas. I'm not sure if it's a problem specific to electronics, or if it's just a case of the ants getting into everything, and the electronics being particularly vulnerable.
Paratrechina sp. nr. pubens more details (Score:5, Informative)
http://urbanentomology.tamu.edu/ants/exotic_tx.cfm [tamu.edu]
Stupid Ants ... (Score:4, Funny)
I had these in my apartment. (Score:4, Interesting)
The complex wrote it off as a side-effect of the recent heavy rain, and did nothing.
As long as they only eat your computer... (Score:4, Interesting)
After some years time he looked into his box to see only some pieces left and some bugs which ate his money. The bank vault was not completly tight and the warm humid weather did it's part in this sad drama, too.
The bank could not be held liable, because it warned its customers of the bug problem long ago. And even when they were liable, they only would have to pay his money for the rent of his box, which is not much rupies instead of his financial damage.
Morale of the story: Don't think something lasts forever. Your DVD's are due in about 15 years time. HD and Blueray much shorter, so don't store your money on it.
It's the insulation, I think. (Score:5, Interesting)
Once when I was down in Panama, a swarm of ants got into a street-side power junction box that supplied industrial-class juice to three huge aircraft hangars. The cute little buggers immediate set themselves to devouring all the insulation off of the main power feeds, and when those arm-thick bundles of now-bare copper came into contact. . . .
BOOM!
The nearest hangar was five stories tall. The shredded remains of that junction box landed on the roof. And I swear it rained ants for the next half hour....
:\
Re:Everytime something like this happens... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Everytime something like this happens... (Score:5, Interesting)
"they may constitute up to 15 to 25% of the total terrestrial animal biomass"
"56% of the genera represented on the Baltic amber fossils (early Oligocene), and 96% of the genera represented in the Dominican amber fossils (apparently early Miocene) still survive today"
You are only alive because ants don't view you as a threat.
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Re:Everytime something like this happens... (Score:5, Funny)
Hey! We humans can reproduce in many flexible ways [wikipedia.org]. ^.~
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Re:Serious Problem (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Serious Problem (Score:4, Funny)
News at 11
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Re:Serious Problem (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Serious Problem (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Serious Problem (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Happens all the time Mexico (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Happens all the time Mexico (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Thanks Rachel (Score:4, Insightful)
Right, because Rachel Carson [wikipedia.org] must be a witch from hell itself for wanting to reduce pesticides that cause birth defects and death [wikipedia.org]?
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Re:Phase IV? Anyone? (Score:4, Insightful)
I didn't think so, because of the lack of poison.
And that's after actually thinking about Phase IV the other day when I crushed almost a dozen new fire ant queens within the space of about two hours.
Anyhow, the only thing good about these "crazy ants" seems to be that they kill fire ants. That's it. I don't know if the trade-off is worth it. And I live in Texas, about 200-300 miles from Houston, so of course I hate fire ants with a passion.
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Re:Uhmmm... (Score:5, Funny)
"They are the size of fleas but they eat ladybugs? How does that work, exactly?"
The key word here is "they". It's plural. I eat cows...but not by myself.
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Re:Smug New Englander (Score:4, Funny)
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