Texas holds more than its share of nasty pests: Imported Argentine Fire Ants, Canadian thistle, zebra mussels, creationists — and now, Rasberry Crazy Ants, Paratrechina sp. nr. pubens.
(Hey, Texas A&M spells it “Rasberry” without a “p,” so do I. It’s named after Pearland, Texas, exterminator Tom Rasberry, who first identified the Texas pest.)
Remember the wonderful old Japanese monster movies, where monsters from past Tokyo ransackings would return to fight the new monsters? Texas could use a good Godzilla or two.
Texas A&M’s Center for Urban and Structural Entomology has an extensive information and warning piece out on the beasts — reprinted for you below the fold.
Look what else you can find:
- A Fort Worth Star-Telegram story on Rasberry crazy ants, in yesterday’s Seattle Times
- Scientific American story saying Rasberry crazy ants threaten honeybee hives
- May 2008 story about the ants in Texas, from the Houston Chronicle
- KOCO Channel 5 (Oklahoma) wonders if the ants are headed to Oklahoma, but finds a local ant that might be nearly as bad — claims that the new ants eat fire ants
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 