Swarming Ants Destroy Electronics in Texas

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."

Blame Apache

The ants are finally tired of building my Java code for me I see.

It was only a matter of time ...

Biological cyber warefare! Did anyone check their heads for lasers?

Re:It was only a matter of time ...

Don't be silly. These are ants, not sharks.

Undocumented insects

They're just destroying the electronics that American ants won't.

Re:Undocumented insects

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.

Invasive Species

Yet another fine example of invasive species coming to the mainland on improperly inspected container cargo.

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

Yet another fine example of invasive species coming to the mainland on improperly inspected container cargo.

Fire ants, Killer bees, Chestnut blight, Dutch Elm Disease, Sudden Oak Death (all invasive and here because of lax monitoring).

You forgot Europeans from that list.

And your solution is?

Ban imports?

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.

Re:And your solution is?

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,

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]

Voids Warranty?

i used to work for a satellite TV company and insect infestation is was specifically mentioned under the "acts of God" portion of the warranty (more specifically as not covered under said warranty).

in training there were a few tales floating around of people calling in with their receiver boxes killed by ants.

Locusts

I think that "acts of God" applies specifically to locusts...

Treat that with penecillin

"paratrenicha species near pubens"

Is it just me, or does that sound like some type of STD?

Leiningen versus the Ants

For your entertainment [classicshorts.com]

Happened to me

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

I've now had to resort to drawing circles of protection around my electronics with insecticide chalk to keep the damn critters out...

I draw pentagrams. Keeps ants and demons away!

Re:Happened to me

I don't know about red ants, but for the big black (carpenter?) ants invading my kitchen, the Terro liquid, which I think is just a sugar solution with 5% borax - you could probably make it yourself, but why bother - was a miracle. I had this problem for many years every spring and summer, and those Raid-type plastic "ant traps" that I put all over the place seemed to have no effect at all.

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.

Not that uncommon.

My company often has ant trouble with electronic equipment installed in the far North of Queensland, in Australia.
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

Texas A&M page on the ants:
http://urbanentomology.tamu.edu/ants/exotic_tx.cfm [tamu.edu]

Re:Everytime something like this happens...

Small swarming animals are very much in advantage here

Fortunately, there are a limited number of Welshmen in the world.

Re:Everytime something like this happens...

Ants have been the most successful lifeform on the planet for a long time. Take a look at the Wikipedia article. [wikipedia.org]

"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.

Re:Serious Problem

"...Ant are warm blooded [Citation Needed]..."

Re:Serious Problem

Cold Blooded animals tend to be attracted to heat. Warm Blooded animals produce their own.

Re:First computer bug

No, it wasn't [askoxford.com].

Re:First computer bug

Interestingly, the first ever computer bug was also of the 'physical' variety - See here [jamesshuggins.com]

From the article you link to:

So, where did the term "bug" come from?

Well, the entry ("First actual case of bug being found.") shows that the term was already in use before the moth was discovered. Grace Hopper also reported that the term "bug" was used to describe problems in radar electronics during WWII [emph mine]

Re:First computer bug

You must be new here

He's an ant.