Tawny Crazy Ants May Displace Fire Ants, Researchers Say

University of Texas researchers are concerned that tawny crazy ants are going to severely disrupt the environmental balance in the Southeastern United States by wiping out one of the region’s other pests, fire ants, UPI reports.

Tawny crazy ants, also referred to as Rasberry ants, are capable of killing other insects and also starving out entire colonies. They multiply quickly and can nest in crawl spaces, walls and even house plants.

“Perhaps the biggest deal is the displacement of the fire ant, which is the 300-pound gorilla in Texas ecosystems these days,” said Ed LeBrun, a research associate with the Texas invasive species research program.

“The whole system has changed around fire ants. Things that can’t tolerate fire ants are gone. Many that can have flourished. New things have come in. Now we are going to go through and whack the fire ants and put something in its place that has a very different biology. There are going to be a lot of changes that come from that.”

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Source: UPI