Black Raspberry
The recent introduction of Raspberry Ants to Texas
For years since the red imported fire ant first appeared, and the situation not yet fully under control. Now, a new species has arrived. They are known as "crazy raspberry ants" and are concentrated in 8 counties in and around Houston. The ants have been in Texas since 2002, but its growth has exploded in the last year, with three more counties added to the list of those already infected.
The ants are called "crazy", and which run in a seemingly random pattern and are called "raspberry" not by their looks, but for Tom raspberry pest controller who discovered six years ago.
Unlike the highly reviled fire ants, crazy raspberry ants do not sting and his bite is relatively harmless. But this does not mean that these ants do not cause problems. What they lack in bite, are offset by the numbers. When raspberry ants crazy infest a property, often do so dramatically. An infestation can have billions of ants, and once an infestation is established, owners property will find it extremely difficult to control.
Generally the size of an ant colony is kept in check by other colonies of the same species – all of them compete for the same resources. If an ant encounters a colony of another ant, they will start a fight, often to death. The colonies also can mount massive raids against others. Not so with raspberry ants. Different raspberry ant colonies are not hostile to each other, but treat one another like nest mates. This means that Raspberry ants throughout Texas are only in the big happy family, creating what is effectively a single, enormous, statewide "super colony". Without controls for other members of their species without natural predators, raspberry ants can achieve almost total control of the medium environment.
When ants enter homes or industrial sites that are often attracted by the hot rumor of electrical equipment. Its size small, about 3 mm, means that when the masses full of them crawl through a circuit board, may fall between the spaces of electrical elements, the closing the loop and short the connections. You've damaged pumping stations, fire alarms, and personal computers. They have even done a work for success Johnson Space Center of NASA.
Clearly, crazy raspberry ants is having an impact on the environment. They kill many other insects, including fire ants and snakes, which has gained some friends. However, have also been reported to overwhelm the newborn birds and small mammals.
However, more research needs to be done to determine the long-term consequences of its explosion environment. One of the basic problems of invasive species is that other species in the regions have not evolved to deal with them. So it can seriously affect the number of resident living in the area. However, the ants seem to have fallen into a hole of regulation.
So what is being done to control these ants? Bryan Black, from the Texas Department of Agriculture, said that these ants can be controlled using Termidor, a pesticide used for termite control. Recently, at the request Tom's raspberry, the TDA has expanded the product labeling to allow pest controllers to use significantly greater amounts in the fight against ants raspberry.
About the Author
Ki is a Austin real estate agent. His site has a blog covering Austin Texas real estate news and stats along with a search for Austin real estate and current stats and graphs of mortgage rates.
Black Raspberries
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