Swarming Ants Destroy Electronics in Texas 328
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."
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)
Re:First computer bug (Score:5, Informative)
From the article you link to:
Re:First computer bug (Score:5, Funny)
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-- Edison
Re:First computer bug (Score:5, Funny)
Re:First computer bug (Score:5, Funny)
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Then what makes them female?
They are "not male". But that doesn't automatically make them female. By evolutionary design, no worker ant ever reproduces. To me, that says genderless. I'm open to the possibility that I'm wrong, if you can explain to me what it is that makes them allegedly "female".
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Re:First computer bug (Score:5, Funny)
From an ant expert (not me)... (Score:3, Informative)
"Worker ants are female because they are genetically female (with different details, but along the lines of human with two X-chromosomes per cell being female, vs those with an X and a Y being male). Worker ants also have at least vestigial ovaries and stings, which are female reproductive and modified egg-laying organs, respectively.
Also, not all worker ants are non-reproductive. Many can lay eggs that give rise to males, most often when they are away from the in
Ob. post (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Ob. post (Score:4, Funny)
Blame Apache (Score:5, Funny)
Happens all the time Mexico (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Happens all the time Mexico (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Happens all the time Mexico (Score:5, Interesting)
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Fire ants are endemic and cause lots of problems, but they can be somewhat controlled. Who knows how fa
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I may be a retard, but why call me "fucking" retard?
If he called you a "fucking" retard on Slashdot, it was probably meant as a complement. ^.^
Besides: American website. Texas interest story.
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Glad I live in North Houston. The buggers will never get past Pasadena! Nothing survives Pasadena.....for very long.
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.
My electronics they can have.... (Score:3, Funny)
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Everytime something like this happens... (Score:2, Insightful)
Imagine a plague that we can't control, originating from such an incident. Small swarming animals are very much in advantage here because there is no big target that we could hit, and because they can reproduce in a more flexible way.
Maybe we should think a bit more about our existence than being arrogant and making "I, for one..." jokes.
Re:Everytime something like this happens... (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:Everytime something like this happens... (Score:5, Funny)
Hey! We humans can reproduce in many flexible ways [wikipedia.org]. ^.~
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Whoa there! Talk about leaping to conclusions. That niche is there greater than ever, and encouraged by our agricultural industry. There are myriad other possible explanations, but their niche collapsing isn't one
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).
Re:Invasive Species (Score:4, Insightful)
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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they don't even try to inspect most containers. you wouldn't have to do ANYTHING, just bolt your bomb down to the nice teak floor in the container and forget about it. Trigger via GPS. No one will notice if the antenna is external if it's on the top.
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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.
I disagree. Let's call it "fortunate" that these ants showed up in Houston suburbs and not elsewhere. What if they had managed to land in the datacenter of a major financial institution? What if it were a nuclear power plant supplying electricity to millions of homes? I realize the former wouldn't result in instant death and destruction like your bomb comparison, but it would grind business to a halt until it was sorted out. Additionally, the latter would be a major issue. Even more so because, due
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.
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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Critters and insects still post a problem:
Bugs and oth
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Worse yet, The Terrorists are right now working on transporter beams that they will surely use to wreak havoc all around us. Our only hope to combat this threat is to completely forfeit what remains of our civil liberties and tithe ever more of our incomes to the burgeoning security partnership of government and industry, wh
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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)
Re:Locusts (Score:5, Insightful)
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!
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.
Re:Happened to me (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Happened to me (Score:4, Funny)
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.
Re:Happened to me (Score:5, Informative)
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At least we were fortunate enough that there weren't enough ants to really damage anything. I'm glad I don't work in that office anymore.
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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.
Re:Not that uncommon. (Score:4, Informative)
They smell like formic acid if you get enough of them.
rhedi_phredi (Score:3, Funny)
WotW (Score:3, Interesting)
And our flying monsters will be destroyed by something as small as an ant eating it's way through yet an other o-ring
Paratrechina sp. nr. pubens more details (Score:5, Informative)
http://urbanentomology.tamu.edu/ants/exotic_tx.cfm [tamu.edu]
Send 'em to China (Score:2)
What did they eat before they got Dell-burgers?
Phase IV? Anyone? (Score:3, Interesting)
scary thing that those creatures really exist
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.
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.
Phase IV (Score:2)
Obvious solution (Score:3, Funny)
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Whoops, There Goes Another ... (Score:3, Funny)
Ants (Score:3, Funny)
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....
:\
Peace Corps Volunteer (Score:3, Informative)
Holy crap (Score:3, Funny)
Nerd ants!
Old news and other incidents (even photos.). (Score:4, Interesting)
Ants in yer... [synaptic.bc.ca] Pants? NOT! (Toshiba [toshiba.com] notebook/laptop); Ants Invade Apple iBook [slashdot.org].
Ants In [yahoo.com]
My Nokia Mobile Phone (A Yahoo! [yahoo.com] account is required).
Ants in Omniview switchboxes [slashdot.org]: An e-mail story of ants invading a network
switchbox. Thanks nTrFace.
Argentine ants invade a network hub [blogspot.com].
Ants had taken up residence in a guy's external hard drive: Ontrack [ontrackdatarecovery.com]
and Computerworld [computerworld.com]
(seen on
A photograph [flickr.com] showing ants nesting in a guy's phone box, affecting his DSL connection and phone system.
Article Corrections (Score:4, Informative)
The author of this article misspelled the name of the ant. I tried Googling "paratrenicha species near pubens" and came up only with results pointing back to this one article.
Correctly spelled, the ant's name is "Paratrechina sp. nr. pubens." It has not yet been identified to the species level, hence the "species near" bit.
Also, what's with this sentence?
No insect bites with a stinger. It's two different ends, folks! I frequently hear someone yelp, "That bee just bit me!" No, she stung you. Honeybees don't even have chewing mouthparts capable of biting--they just suck nectar with a siphon-like structure.
Fun Fact: Only female insects sting, since a stinger is actually a modified ovipositor. Thankfully, mammals like our ladies haven't yet evolved venomous uses for their reproductive parts.
Re:Serious Problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Serious Problem (Score:4, Funny)
News at 11
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http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-3032.1989.tb01109.x [blackwell-synergy.com]
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I don't think that means what you think it means.
Re:Serious Problem (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Serious Problem (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Serious Problem (Score:5, Funny)
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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]?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Let's quote Carson herself: "No responsible person contends that insect-borne disease should be ignored.... Practical advice should be 'Spray as little as you possibly can' rather than 'Spray to the limit of your capacity' ... Pressure on the pest population should always be as slight as possible."
Doesn't sound like she wanted to eliminate DDT, does it? Rather, she wanted its use scaled back from what she saw as excessive.
OSQ (Score:2)
Kent Brockman: Ladies and gentlemen, er, we've just lost the picture, but, uh, what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has been taken over -- "conquered", if you will -- by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain, there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welc
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.
Re:Smug New Englander (Score:4, Funny)
Re:different... ummmm, not pick a fight... (Score:3, Informative)