Like a really horror film, voracious swarming ants are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, including NASA, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers.

Ants cripple computers in US - 18 / 05 / 2008 07:21

A new species of ant—temporarily dubbed paratrenicha species near pubens—has been giving Texans the heebie-jeebies for the past six years since its arrival in Houston via, it is believed, a cargo ship, the Associated Press reported this week.

The origin of these "crazy rasberry ants" (named after exterminator Tom Rasberry) is unknown, but their cousins, commonly called crazy ants, are found in the Southeast and the Caribbean.

 These puny pests have ruined pumps at sewage stations, fouled computers and at least one homeowner's gas meter as well as caused the malfunction of fire alarms.

The hairy, reddish-brown invaders have also been spotted wandering erratically (rather than in ants' typical regimented formations) at NASA's Johnson Space Center and close to Houston's Hobby Airport.

The ants are resistant to over-the-counter poisons.

"At this point, it would be nearly impossible to eradicate the ant because it is so widely dispersed," said Roger Gold, an entomologist at Texas A&M University.

The Texas Department of Agriculture is working with researchers at Texas A&M University in College Station and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop the ants, which, along with biting humans, feed on other insects (including the beloved ladybug) and even eat the hatchlings of a small, endangered grouse called the Atwater prairie chicken.

About the only good that can be said of these new settlers is that they indiscriminately eat fire ants, a bane of Texas summers.

In the meantime, local exterminators want the EPA's approval to use more powerful pesticides on these uninvited guests, because normal ant traps and insecticides don't appear to work.

"Crazy rasberry ants" are shown Tuesday, May 13, 2008, in Deer Park, Texas. The ants are throwing off the balance of nature as they feast on beneficial insects, researchers say.

AP