How fire ants form giant rafts to survive Houston floods

[HAB911]

Drop a clump of 100,000 fire ants in a pond of water -- or flood a huge area of Texas that's infested with fire ants and drive them out of their nests in large groups. In minutes the clump will flatten and spread into a circular pancake that can float for weeks without drowning the ants.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/houston-floods-fire-ants-form-giant-rafts-to-survive-harvey/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=41582106

[Warpy]

1. Too bad those cans of charcoal starter are needed for other things

A hefty stream into the middle of the raft where the queen and the eggs are being protected, toss a match, and you've got one dead colony.

I wonder if the crazy ants know how to raft. I hope not.

[shraby]

3. It would be a good time to syphon them off the water and exterminate them.

[Warpy]

5. They'd never get them all. It would just be satisfying to get some of them.

Invasive species get no love from me.

[SCantiGOP]

6. I'm all for biodiversity

But a world without fire ants, mosquitos and roaches would suit me just fine.

I think I recall the old Ogden Nash poem:

God Is great but god makes mistakes;
How else to explain roaches, ants and snakes?

[Warpy]

7. Mosquito larvae feed fresh water fish

and the adults feed bats and birds. Roaches have turned out to be reasonably intelligent, social insects who also feed critters that hunt them, they just need to stay outside.

Fire ants need to GO.

[SCantiGOP]

8. Mosquitos kill more people

Than all other animals combined. Not directly but from the diseases they spread: malaria, west nile. Zika, etc.

[Warpy]

9. Aedes aegypti is expendable, it's the worst of them all

mostly because it's active during the day, and that makes it the most efficient disease vector.

However, the others are crepuscular and can be avoided during rainy seasons. And they do sustain us by being part of the food chain in 2 stages of their lives.

[SCantiGOP]

11. I know that well

I am a mosquito magnet for some reason and I used to only worry about the 2-3 hours around sunup and sundown.
Since those little egyptian bastards moved into SC I get bitten mowing the lawn at noon in the middle of the yard.


(Edit for typo: why does spellcheck not allow the word 'well'? It insists on the apostrophe every time.)

[Warpy]

12. You've got two viable options

Take up smoking. Little bastards hate the stink as much as I do, but it does shoo them away, they don't like having smoke blown at them. Or wear Off and smell like a scout camp until winter arrives.

[SCantiGOP]

13. I spray all exposed skin

with Off Outdoors. It works about 90%.

I quit smoking 9 years ago as of Aug 1. I would take scorpion bites rather than start that again.

[Warpy]

14. Understood. I reeked of Off when I lived in Mass.

Blood sucking bastards love me, too.

DEET is really the better option.

[Xipe Totec]

10. A couple of drops of Dawn detergent does the trick

It's all about breaking surface tension.

[underpants]

2. I've seen the pics. Truly amazing.

[Doreen]

4. I actually read about that long ago.

Can't remember where as it was long ago and I really did not pay much attention to it but I do remember it some.

[Javaman]

15. how do they choose who is on the bottom? nt

[Judi Lynn]

16. Fire Ants Are Yet Another Hazard in Houstons Flooded Streets

By CHRISTINE HAUSER
AUG. 30, 2017



The streets in Texas flooded by Hurricane Harvey brought upheaval to nature’s earthbound creatures, throwing them out of their natural habitats into a world overwhelmed with water.

People sloshed through chest-high waters clutching children. Shadowy alligators floated in yards. A man caught a fish in his house. Bats were priedfrom bridges. Livestock paddled through streets where they were once fleet of foot.

But certainly among the creepiest images to emerge were the rust-colored mounds formed by colonies of fire ants, the nightmarish spawn of the storm that first made landfall last week and soaked South Texas with record-setting rains. At least 31 deaths have been confirmed.

Soon after the waters rose, the insects’ enterprise and instinct for communal self-preservation kicked in. They rose up from their underground tunnel systems and literally stuck together to survive, linking their claws and clinging to one another in massive rafts and balls that floated and spun in the current.

More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/us/fire-ants-harvey-hurricane-storm.html