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Travis County is partnering with the University of Texas at Austin to evaluate a pathogen as a biological control agent for tawny crazy ants. The invasive ants can threaten your yards and get into your home. They also threaten songbirds and some endangered species. Researchers at UT will introduce the microsporidian pathogen by inoculating tawny crazy ant colonies. In prior research, experts found the pathogen may significantly reduce TCA populations.

How does one kill crazy ants in a do-it-yourself way? We've put down Boric Acid and flea spray, both of which kill them. But, they keep coming back by the thousands. Any ideas?

Although the insects are so named for their swarming maneuvers, the term is equally apt for the damage they inflict on the human psyche. For reasons not fully understood, the ants are found in large numbers near electrical equipment and wall sockets. Cellphones and television sets have succumbed to the ant swarms, and the insects damaged electronics in a Houston-area industrial park... Like the infamous fire ant, the crazy ant is a South American native that made its way to the Lone Star state. The animals do not coexist peacefully. The crazy ant – despite its less painful venom –...

ANTS: Good News Vs Bad News How many of you are familiar with Fire Ants? How many of you wished they would go away? THE GOOD NEWS: Fire Ants are leaving.THE BAD NEWS:“Rasberry Crazy Ants” (in honor of the Texas exterminator that discovered them), a.k.a. "Tawny crazy ants" , and scientifically know as Nylanderia fulva as driving them out. "I want my Fire Ants back!" is being said by many across Mississippi. Because these Rasberry crazy ants are much harder to control, and they get into everything. They get into the insulation in your home, into your electronics, into your...

The English had the longbow. The Spanish had steel. Tawny crazy ants have their own formidable weapon—a protective acid sheath—that protects them against fire ant enemies. The revelation comes from a new study published this week. Named for their butterscotch color and erratic movements, tawny crazy ants are the newest insect invaders sprawling throughout Texas and the Gulf states, unseating the reigning imported fire ants that have infested the region. Teeming out of electrical outlets and short-circuiting electronics, the tiny reddish-brown crazy ants have been making headlines as their numbers climb in the southeastern U.S. In some locales they can...

DALLAS - In what sounds like a really 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. "They're itty-bitty things about the size of fleas, and they're just running everywhere," said Patsy Morphew of Pearland, who is constantly sweeping them off...

In what sounds like a really 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. "They're itty-bitty things about the size of fleas, and they're just running everywhere," said Patsy Morphew of Pearland, who is constantly sweeping them off her patio...

Something crazy is spreading across Texas, and it may be so destructive that one day it will make Texans actually miss the hated fire ant. Crazy ants, so named because they move in all directions rather than in a straight line, first surfaced in Houston seven years ago and had previously been confirmed in 14 Southeast Texas counties as far north as Huntsville. But now the ants have been seen beyond the Houston area, with confirmed sightings in San Antonio and in Jim Hogg County in the Rio Grande Valley. This discovery is viewed as "a significant change" by researchers...

Viruses, grueling journeys, monoculture diets. U.S. honeybees have had it rough lately, and millions have perished from the mysterious colony collapse disorder (CCD). But now some of the nation's bees have a new threat to contend with: ants. And not just any ants. These ants are crazy—Rasberry crazy ants (Paratrenicha species near pubens), to be precise. Named for their helter-skelter scamper, which contrasts with most ants' standard rank-and-file march, the tiny invasive ants were first noticed in near Houston, Texas, in 2002 and have been destroying electronics, pestering picnickers and gunking up sewage pumps ever since. And now they have...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It sounds like a horror movie: Biting ants invade by the millions. A camper's metal walls bulge from the pressure of ants nesting behind them. A circle of poison stops them for only a day, and then a fresh horde shows up, bringing babies. Stand in the yard, and in seconds ants cover your shoes. It's an extreme example of what can happen when the ants — which also can disable huge industrial plants — go unchecked. Controlling them can cost thousands of dollars. But the story is real, told by someone who's been studying ants...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It sounds like a horror movie: Biting ants invade by the millions. A camper's metal walls bulge from the pressure of ants nesting behind them. A circle of poison stops them for only a day, and then a fresh horde shows up, bringing babies. Stand in the yard, and in seconds ants cover your shoes. It's an extreme example of what can happen when the ants — which also can disable huge industrial plants — go unchecked. Controlling them can cost thousands of dollars. But the story is real, told by someone who's been studying ants...

They are tiny, destructive and they bite - so whatever you do don't ant-agonise them. A plague of pesky little alien invaders are causing mayhem as they spread across America

Invasive fire ants have been a thorn in the sides of Southerners for years. But another invasive species, the so-called "crazy" ant that many describe as being worse has arrived and is displacing fire ants in several places. "When you talk to folks who live in the invaded areas, they tell you they want their fire ants back," said Edward LeBrun, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, in a statement from the school. "Fire ants are in many ways very polite. They live in your yard. They form mounds and stay there, and they only interact with...

This is one horror film plot that may be all too real: Billions of voracious ants are about to descend on the Houston area, destroying entire homes and anything else that gets in their way. Rasberry Crazy Ants, even more destructive and mobile than their angry cousins, fire ants, are just weeks away from descending on the largest city in Texas. Since 2008, the ants, which entomologists believe came to Texas from South America aboard a cargo ship in the 1930s, have expanded their presence to 27 counties from just eight. Once in a home, they zero in on electrical...