Zombie Ants
By John Amato Wednesday May 13, 2009 5:45pm
(graphic via SBS U Texas)
This sounds like a horror movie. Only in Texas, my friends:
Pesky Ants Becoming Zombies That Die
Some researchers in Texas are trying an unusual approach to combat fire ants -- parasitic flies that turn the pesky insects into zombies whose heads fall off. "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 Texas A&M's 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 as many as 23 phorid species along with pathogens attack fire ants to keep their population and movements under control.
So far, four phorid species have been introduced in Texas, where fire ants cost the economy about $1 billion annually by damaging circuit breakers and other electrical equipment, according to a Texas A&M study. They can also threaten young calves. The flies "dive-bomb" the fire ants and lay eggs, and then the maggot that hatches inside the ant eats away at the brain. Later, the ant gets up and starts wandering for about two weeks, said Rob Plowes, a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin...read on
Emailer Tom writes: Hi John, I can't help but think there is a connection to Washington in here somewhere.
There's a lot of places I could go with this one, but I'll leave it up to you.
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That explains the behavior of republicans.
The flies on their foreheads, the blank stare into space, the inability to process logical thought, wondering about destroying things and speaking in "talking points"...........
cuz i wanna be there to witness it
introducing a new species to get rid of another uninvited species is not a good idea. you really have no idea what's going to happen with the flies, they might like a beneficial being in the area, and it's all fubared, a genie you can't get back into the bottle.
I was an ant geek in elementary school. Wrote so many reports on army ants.
I watch them in my garden with a magnifying glass-- still. Does that make me an ant geek too?
I watch a lot of insects. I find the insect world calming.
They're anything but calming. Of all the insects in my part of the US, I hate fire ants the most. They're tenacious, they'll swarm up your leg before you know they're there, their bite/sting is like being stung by a hornet (though they're incredibly small to pack such a wallop), they leave a pus-filled blister that itches and burns for days, and some people have died from being stung by them. Their bite-sting is venomous!
They love garden soil, and you can't put poison there or have them carry it back to the nest in your garden, so you have to drive them out the best you can and hope they find the poison and take it to a nest elsewhere.
So as soon as Texas wants to release these predator flies that make them headless zombies to other states, I'll be first in line.
But the analogy to the Republican party is certainly striking!
It's true that there have been many cases where man's attempts to engineer biological problems have created bigger problems, but anyone who wouldn't applaud attempts to control fire ants is a fucking idiot.
A friend of mine was driving late at night in the middle of nowhere, had to pee and pulled over. Little did he know he was standing on a fire ant nest. He got back in the car and started to drive, and on a silent pheromonic signal, they all bit him simultaneously. He almost crashed his car, and the toxins messed him up for days.
Note to Californians: we Southerners don't make fun of your earthquakes and fires; please fuck off with your supercilious comments about our deadly pests.
Or one of the mindless drivels that the Sci-Fi channel puts on Saturday nights.
But I can't turn away...it's like watchin a train wreck.
Occasionally, I've found they actually make a good flick, but I think it's completely accidental.
And doesn't know the FIRST thing about them or their effect on human beings. It really is like being attacked by a swarm of hornets when you didn't even know they were around. Not many people would be sanguine about such an experience. Fire ants need to be controlled so the populations of other ants can reach balance again -- they're killing them in alarming numbers.
It's the d@mn Cane Toad all over again. How long before we read the stories about the unintended consequences of this one?
Every time scientists introduce a species in an arrogant attempt to fix the damage caused by the last invasive species we introduced, they say the same BS. No, this NEW species won't cause a problem, they'll just do the one & only thing we want them to do, then die.
I wonder what these people think is going to happen to all the eggs that these flies will supposedly lay in the heads of the ants. Could they possibly hatch into an unpredictable & unmanageable number of flies? What happens if the flies do kill off most of the Fire Ants & there aren't enough left to play host to the fly eggs - where will the flies lay their eggs?
I'm beginning to wish I could secede from the species.
they dont attack other species...only fire ants
pretty cool
however...watch them mutate
then they will go after humans
until they kill off the fire ants, or find an ant that is sweeter, or another insect that isn't as defensive.
As in "Jurassic Park" nature finds a way.
Every time humans do anything like this it ALWAYS backfires.
The fire ants are already pushing out native ant species...if these bugs decide to go for easier pickins....then the native ants wouldn't stand a chance.
These flies have also been known to 'attack' humans, which explains Texas.
I think we ought to sort out the human world before we go messing around with the very complex, and often mystical, insect world.
Can you imagine if you had a GROW GUN and could make insects 10X bigger? We'd all be doomed. (OK. I am an insect geek.)
"parasitic flies that turn the pesky insects into zombies whose heads fall off."
aka "Dittoheads"
I've heard that the fire ants are particularly bad down there this spring.
Apparently, they've just had a fresh influx of the nasty pests.
I've got them in my front yard this year they were not there last spring. I experienced about ten bites before I discovered my new guests. They waste zero time stinging they are all business all the time.
Forget conservative wars and conservative recessions its teh gays that are going to destroy America!
Quick, put on your diapers before you wet your beds!
http://openthread.dailykos.com/
ending with her usual, "what could possibly go wrong?"
i usually avert my eyes and ignore the ads for scary movies - they seem to pop up a lot on comedy central...
but a new one showed the other night, and i caught enough to give me the creeps... this story reminds me of the scene i saw of a bug that crawled into the girl's nose... lots of screaming and horrible noises followed...
i'm a gardener, so i appreciate the insect world - to a point.
for the most part, they creep me out and i have a healthy respect for them.
rule of life: do NOT mess with mother nature.
What could possibly go wrong?
There was an old lady who swallowed a fly.
I dunno why she swallowed that fly,
Perhaps she'll die.
There was an old lady who swallowed a spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
But I dunno why she swallowed that fly -
Perhaps she'll die.
There was an old lady who swallowed a bird;
How absurd, to swallow a bird!
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
But I dunno why she swallowed that fly -
Perhaps she'll die
There was an old lady who swallowed a cat.
Imagine that, she swallowed a cat.
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird ...
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
But I dunno why she swallowed that fly
Perhaps she'll die
There was an old lady who swallowed a dog.
What a hog! To swallow a dog!
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat...
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird ...
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
But I dunno why she swallowed that fly
Perhaps she'll die.
There was an old lady who swallowed a goat.
Just opened her throat and swallowed a goat!
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog ...
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat.
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird ...
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
But I dunno why she swallowed that fly
Perhaps she'll die.
There was an old lady who swallowed a cow.
I don't know how she swallowed a cow!
She swallowed the cow to catch the goat... She swallowed the goat to catch the dog...
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat...
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird ...
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
But I dunno why she swallowed that fly
Perhaps she'll die.
There was an old lady who swallowed a horse -
She's dead, of course.
Rabbits, meet Australia!
...cane toads.
There is no guarantee that a transplanted species won't find a more attractive target in a habitat they've never occupied before.
Moving species around usually ends badly. Just look at humans -- if only we'd all stayed in Africa.
To meet their zombie master.
Now seriously, the phorid flies do a good job in South America and there hasn't been any reports of them attacking any other species, even dry wood termites, so this is a win win situation. I work in pest control and this is pretty green. A huge part of organic foods is to have natural enemies controlling themselves on a tolerable level where the capital investiment is not lost by overkill. I actually think that the future of termite control lays on the hands of nematodes.
Miss_Kitty, there shouldn't be any problems because when the fire ants were imported into the US, they actually lacked natural control available in their original habitat, so this is pretty much like bringing balance when there was none. Nature is pretty cool.
Very cool. Less business for Monsanto.
Unless they hire anyone from GMC, Ford, IAG, Citibank and Bank of America.
Seeing how were talking about Texas, are the flies going to be working as illegals, or will they have a path to citizenship?
Lou Dobbs should have something about this on his show tomorrow.
sometime the cure is worse than the illness. I know fireants were imported. I said that importing another non native species can be just as problematic as the original infestation. Moving species around the globe is not necessarily the wisest decision to make. AS I said, the little flies could find some native species, say a beneficial insect that keeps other pests in check, as tasty or tastier that fireants, and start killing them off.
You just don't know.
"not the wisest decision to make"
When did that ever stop people from messing with mother nature? Sigh!
The flies are tested in every other native insects on the area they are to be released for at least 3 years prior to treatment, including the absence of fire ants and they would simply starve to death rather than attack another species.
So you don't want the flies...
Florida's fire ant population, still in FL a scant 25 or so years ago, has expanded to Kentucky and probably even farther north, carried with produce, phosphates, and tourists.
Now that the Yankee bourgeoisie are growing backyard gardens and flowerbox tomatoes, I may only hope that you walk down a row or two and encounter this little species of radar-activated toy. They refrain from chowing down on your legs until the advance guard makes it up to your crotch, and then they all sting at once, producing multiplicities of agony and tiny blisters which last for up to a week.
Have plenty of Stephen King-style nightmares after you shake hands with these ecological neighbors while reaching into your tater hills.
We have plenty of useless houseflies, deer flies, and ankle-nipping chihuahuas. I want a few dozen of your engineered Texas flies for truly valuable housepets.
I read your post a few times and can't understand wtf you are talking about.
In the ever-funky Japan, the pest controllers have a festival every year to honour all the termites they have exterminated.
If you want to read the historical record of Japanese termite controllers...
http://www.hakutaikyo.or.jp/eng_0102.html
1971 Erected a tower in honour of termites.
They're very Zen there.
Termites are a huge threat to chop sticks, hehe.
Kidding aside, it's incredible how they managed to develop technological advancement and yet stay close to their heritage.
Japan is one bit-o-fun followed by another!!!!! They're very eccentric; never boring. I love visiting.
I've got no beef with ants, they are such hardworking little creatures after all, I just get kinda antsy when I see insects up close.
Hmm, zombie ants...at least these flies don't create even more zombie banks!
Some researchers in Texas are trying an unusual approach to combat fire ants -- parasitic flies that turn the pesky insects into zombies whose heads fall off...
The flies "dive-bomb" the fire ants and lay eggs, and then the maggot that hatches inside the ant eats away at the brain. Later, the ant gets up and starts wandering for about two weeks...
__________________________________________________________________
Next up for experimentation, politicians.
And even these fly-bombed ants know Texas can't secede from the Union.
I was just about to ask around about you Mister! ;) I was starting to get worried.
How DARE you have a life Mister!
If they feed on brains, the GOP is safe. :(
Kind of like Homer Simpson from zombies.
"Some researchers in Texas are trying an unusual approach to combat fire ants -- parasitic flies that turn the pesky insects into zombies whose heads fall off...
The flies "dive-bomb" the fire ants and lay eggs, and then the maggot that hatches inside the ant eats away at the brain. Later, the ant gets up and starts wandering for about two weeks..."
Next up for experimentation, politicians...
And even these fly-bombed ants know better than to believe Texas can secede from the Union.
I guess that buzzing in my head is pesky flies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM4JphDngiY&fe...
To be really creeped out, check this one:
Parasitic Worms Create 'Zombie' Snails
Parasitic flatworms (Leucochloridium paradoxum) attack innocent gastropods, and force the snails to feed themselves to birds - over and over. While you ponder the Prometheus-like fate of these snails, let's first talk about Toxoplasma Gondii, which infects human beings.
How exactly does a snail feed itself to a bird...over and over? Wouldn't doing that once kill it already?
Mind controlling fungi...neato.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/331826/ant_fungus/
Oh yeah. Introducing an alien species that has no predators here? THAT certainly couldn't blow up in anyone's face. Just ask the Australians!
Twenty years from now, when Texas is awash in these weird South American flies and go crawling to the federal government for money to help eradicate them, I hope they're told to go fuck themselves.
This certainly explains the all brainless Reslugs in Texas.
Fire ants are an introduced species. They have no natural controls here. The plan is to introduce their natural predators. This is very simple and straightforward, much like fruit fly genetic research and volcano monitoring. Have the progressives decided to have a moron competition with the fake-conservatives?
I will help you out here. To anyone who thinks introducing phorid flies is a bad idea, I will mail you a special box filled with fire ants*, harvested from my very own yard, which you can then release in YOUR yard. Get back to me in 2 years and we'll see if your opinion has changed.
*note: I will not be mailing anyone anything, as I'm fairly certain that would be illegal even if both parties consented, in much the same way intentionally cultivating kudzu is illegal.
This is just what we need. There have been stories about problems with honeybees being attacked by mites. Now they'll introduce a small fly that lays eggs on ants. How can they guarantee that the flies won't proliferate and attack other insects that are beneficial? I don't like anything that is introduced. Rabbits in Australia and New Zealand, boa constricters in Florida, Starlings in the US, kudzu. Nothing good ever comes of it.
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