Crazy Raspberry Ants Attack Computers! Bug Spray Won't Stop Them!

" 'Crazy raspberry' ants invade Texas, damage computers"
CTV.ca (May 14, 2008)

"DALLAS -- In what sounds like a low-budget horror film, voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers.

"The hairy, reddish-brown creatures are known as "crazy rasberry ants'' -- crazy, because they wander erratically instead of marching in regimented lines, and "rasberry'' after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who did battle against them early on. ..."

"Worse, they, like some other species of ants, are attracted to electrical equipment, for reasons that are not well understood by scientists. ... They have ruined pumps at sewage pumping stations, fouled computers and at least one homeowner's gas meter, ... the ants ... appear to be resistant to over-the-counter ant killers."

Sounds like "Them!" - only scarier.

Yes, scarier.

The giant atomic mutant ants in that 1954 Sci Fi flick weren't really a threat to civilization. In common with most movie monsters, they were big, easy to spot, and relatively easy to kill. Once Earth's defenders realized that small-caliber side arms and rifles weren't all that effective against something built like n airliner-size tan.

These crazy raspberry ants, on the other hand, are tiny, hard to spot, and there are so many of them that, as a group, they're well-nigh impossible to kill off.

And, they're going for our computers!!

On the up side, they eat fire ants, and the crazy ants' stings don't hurt as much as the fire ants'.