‘Crazy Ants’ Taking Over Texas, Florida And On Their Way To Alabama? Homeowners Struggle To Kill Pests With Traditional Sprays Because ‘They Come Back’
"Crazy ants" are taking over the US Gulf Coast, including states like Texas, Florida, and Georgia, because of the crazy ants' ability to rapidly reproduce. Homeowners in Texas and Florida are struggling to kill the crazy ants with traditional extermination methods. Are the crazy ants heading to Alabama now?
Though "crazy ants," also called Tawny crazy ants, do not sting or bite like fire ants, they multiply very quickly and like to make their home in warm, tight spaces including around electrical equipment, under floorboards and in car engines, Reuters reports. This makes them a nuisance to homeowners in Texas and Florida.
Originally from South America, the ants were discovered in Texas in 2002, and there have been confirmed sightings in at least four other states, including Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida in the US Gulf Coast region, Reuters reports.
And the crazy ants are spreading.
They are "within four miles of Alabama right now," according to research scientist Joe MacGown at the Mississippi Entomological Museum, Reuters reports.
The biggest problem is that not enough is known about the physiology of the crazy ants to predict how far they will travel, and how best to eliminate them, experts said.
Traditional extermination chemicals do not seem to work, Reuters reports.
"You can spray and it will kill tens of thousands, but they come back," said Joe Stuckey, a Houston environmental attorney. "If you took a restaurant-sized pepper jug and poured it on the floor, that's how thick they are."
"This year's been the worst ever."
"You almost have to see it to believe what a nuisance these can become," said Robert Puckett, an associate research scientist at Texas A&M University. "I've been in people's houses where they show me trash bags full of ants they've swept up."
Diana Tahtinen, who owns a home south of Houston, estimates spending about $1,000 a year on pest control to kill the crazy ants on her land. According to Reuters, she's had to pay this much for the last three years due to the invasion of the crazy ants.
