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ZOMBIE ANTS!
It sounds like something out of science fiction: zombie fire ants. But it's all too real.
Fire ants wander aimlessly away from the mound.
Eventually their heads fall off, and they die.
The strange part is that researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M's AgriLife Extension Service say making "zombies" out of fire ants is a good thing.
"It's a tool — they're not going to completely wipe out the fire ant, but it's a way to control their population," said Scott Ludwig , an integrated pest management specialist with the AgriLife Extension Service in Overton , in East Texas .
The tool is the tiny phorid fly, native to a region of South America where the fire ants in Texas originated. Researchers have learned that there are as many as 23 phorid species along with pathogens that attack fire ants to keep their population and movements under control.
So far, four phorid species have been introduced in Texas .
The flies "dive-bomb" the fire ants and lay eggs. The maggot that hatches inside the ant eats away at the brain, and the ant starts exhibiting what some might say is zombie-like behavior.
"At some point, the ant gets up and starts wandering," said Rob Plowes, a research associate at UT.
The maggot eventually migrates into the ant's head, but Plowes said he "wouldn't use the word 'control' to describe what is happening. There is no brain left in the ant, and the ant just starts wandering aimlessly. This wandering stage goes on for about two weeks."
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by KOMRAD RHINO☭ on
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this is an interesting little tid bit. mom and my grandparents lived in Texas for years. they kept uncut Lysol or bleach in the car at all times. reason being if someone were to get swarmed by fire ants or a child were to wander onto a fire ant mound. they would use the bleach or Lysol on the bites. and what that does is kill the fire ant venom and also takes the burn out of the sting which is how the fire ant earned its name. my grandmother found this out because her hand got stung by some fire ants one day and she went to mop the floors the next day. well as she poured the Lysol into the bucket of water, some of the Lysol got on the sting area. it stopped the burn of the fire ant stings on contact. so from then on, they kept some in the car where ever they went in Texas.
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Permalink Reply by kasumalley on
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Scat wrote about them on his page a long time ago and no one responded. We had some ants that were just like this. They were insane. They were super fast and aggressive. (And we are in TX) Ants are hands down, one of my biggest issue. The second you sit something sweet on the ground, they will swarm it. So when it gets cold, they get really bad. They climb in through the plumbing looking for water. That means that ants want to join you when you need a bath. Es no bueno.
To further explain our weird ants, they were attacking our computer. They were these crazy ants that jumped, ran in crazy directions, were chaotic and very, very aggressive. Then they would fall apart and die. They were really crazy and we fought them for a while. Then they were just gone. The regular ants just hang around no matter what.
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Permalink Reply by Redrum: the undead juggalo on
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ooo...you were attacked by zombie antz!!!!
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