[ExI] Ants for spike!

[BillK]

On 11/11/09, Emlyn wrote:
>  The reproduction of ants is at the nest level; it all funnels through
>  the fertile members (the queen and whichever male mates with her; is
>  it the same as bees?), these embody the germline of the nest.
>
>

And then there are Rasberry ants.
<http://www.physorg.com/news177341639.html>

Rapacious Rasberry crazy ants march north
November 13, 2009

Poor Texas. First it was killer bees, then fire ants. Now, it's the
Rasberry ants.
"This is a species that we do not know much about. Presumably the ant
came from the Caribbean through the Port of Houston," Cook said. "We
know the ant is in the Paratrechina genus and is capable of growing a
population of billions and they need to eat. They especially like
other bugs, like fire ants and honey bees."

The population is growing so fast, and so large, that it is
potentially an ecosystem disaster, according to Cook.
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And what's worse - they eat computers!
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paratrechina_species_near_pubens>

The species has been named "crazy" because of the ants' random,
nonlinear movements.
The colonies have multiple queens. They feed on ladybugs, fire ants
and Attwater's prairie chicken hatchlings, as well as plants. They are
able to out-compete fire ants because they reproduce faster. The ants
are not attracted to ordinary ant baits, are not controlled by
over-the-counter pesticides, and are harder to fully exterminate
because their colonies have multiple queens.
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BillK