Hairy Crazy Ants: Is There Anything that Can Stop Them?

As a new resident in Georgia from Ohio, I wasn't prepared for Fire Ants when I bought my home in the northern part of the state. My first contact with them was chopping down an anthill with my lawn mower, and then watching them spread up my pants leg in one thick, dark swarm. It didn't end well.

Four years later, the specter of an ant that is actually worse than the fire ant looms in parts of the American South. Alternatively called the "Hairy Crazy Ant," the "Caribbean Crazy Ant," or the "Rasberry Crazy Ant," it is believed that this new and highly invasive pest has traveled from South America, hitching a ride in cargo containers and exotic potted plants to make its way to American shores, and then spreading from there in hay bales and moving vans. They have become particularly problematic in Texas this year, where they have been found in hay bales moved from county to county to feed livestock in areas affected by the drought.

The Hairy Crazy Ant is approximately the size of a flea, between two and three centimeters long. It gets its name from its method of movement: That is, it moves in a highly erratic pattern approximately three times faster than a typical ant. The reason that the ant is so problematic is that if one ant is killed, it triggers a chemical response in the rest of the ant colony that causes them to attack. This has been the cause of a number of electrical problems because an ant may crawl into a computer terminal or an electrical connection and get electrocuted. The colony then swarms, which can overload the electrical system and cause extensive damage to the components. While control is possible with these ants, it is neither foolproof nor cheap. Just protecting your home from Hairy Crazy Ants could cost thousands of dollars per year, if your exterminator is even set up to deal with the hairy little pests.

The Hairy Crazy ant is currently on the move in Texas, Florida and Mississippi, where populations of the invasive ants have risen in the last ten years to inhabit numerous counties. While there were only five counties in Florida that had Hairy Crazy Ant activity in 2000, there are now twenty. Additionally, there were no documented Hairy Crazy ants in Texas, and now there are reports of as many as 18 counties with the ants. Mississippi and Louisiana still have relatively moderate levels of habitation by the Hairy Crazy Ant, but at the current rate of expansion, it seems clear that the ant will be a powerhouse pest throughout the South by as early as 2020.

A handful of pesticide applications have begun to be developed, but whether or not these treatments will be administered similarly to the way that termite treatments are administered- on a subscription basis, with homeowners having to pay an annual or semi-annual fee for protection against the invaders, is yet to be known. One thing seems certain, though. The Hairy Crazy Ant just might be the pest that makes you nostalgic about that fire ant mound in your backyard.

Sources:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Hairy Crazy Ants Make Way In South; Janet Mcconnaughey; Oct. 2, 2011
Statesman.com: "Hairy, Crazy ants invade from Texas to Miss."; Janet McConnaughey: http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/hairy-crazy-ants-invade-from-texas-to-miss-1889664.html

Center for Urban and Structural Entymology, Texas A&M University, "Rasberry Crazy Ant": http://urbanentomology.tamu.edu/ants/exotic_tx.cfm