Comments | kgkofmel: There are Ants, and then there are Ants, and then there are Fire Ants

kgkofmel

There are Ants, and then there are Ants, and then there are Fire Ants

Nov 18, 2012 11:50

(trying to get today's post done early ( Read more... )

Comments 8

amysisson November 18 2012, 18:47:44 UTC

Are the crazy ants the ones that like electrical wiring, or I am imagining that?

Yikes!

Knock on wood, so far we've only had to deal with tiny kitchen ants, which we call "sugar ants" (although I don't know if that's accurate or not).

kgkofmel November 18 2012, 23:01:24 UTC

Crazy ants like electrical equipment in general. As do many other insects, apparently.

There's a kind of itty bitty ant that Motorcycle Boy calls sugar ants, which are probably the same thing as what you have.

Around here at the house we have a variety of ants, I think, from sugar ants on up to fire ants. So far I have not seen a direct analogue to the big black ants that are common in Ontario. Not minding that; just for the record.

tmc4242 November 19 2012, 19:14:04 UTC

Fire Ants tend to go after electrical wiring. That was a big problem there were folks working on when I was at the Supercollider.

I think the solutions was "More Amdro."

spike20 November 19 2012, 05:14:22 UTC

What makes crazy ants crazy? On a semi-related note, we haven't seen a single ant in our house in over a year. I blame the unusually dry past two summers we've had in Ontario.

kgkofmel November 20 2012, 04:16:44 UTC

I think they are called "crazy" because they tend to run around quickly in seemingly random ways. I think they swarm some things too. And have very long forage lines. And continue attacking/invading even when they are dying in vast numbers as a result.

tammylc November 19 2012, 11:51:33 UTC

Yes, what makes crazy ants crazy? You can't just leave us hanging like that.

con_girl November 19 2012, 17:38:34 UTC

I greatly appreciate the reminder of one of the many reasons I like living in Canada. Fire ants and Crazy ants and other horrible insects come with no winter.

con_girl November 19 2012, 17:44:13 UTC

http://urbanentomology.tamu.edu/ants/rasberry.html

Oh look, apparently they say that you must get in specialists and
"After treatment, or when making multiple applications over time, piles of dead ants must be swept or moved out of the area in order to treat the surface(s) underneath."

Any insect that covers the ground like that . . . shudder. . .