Jun 30
The ants are coming: the ants are coming
Cats: Canada|My neighbourhood is under siege. The European Fire Ants have arrived. They are little red ants that sting.
Actually they arrived some twenty years ago off the ships but only recently have people been getting up in arms about it.
These little devils set up colonies with multiple queens. So you can’t just kill them off by killing one queen.
Bloody little divas, they are.
I’ve never been bitten and I haven’t seen them on my property but neighbours have them so it’s only a matter of time.
June 30th, 2009 at 11:02 am
I have been accused quite rightly as being a pedant, but sometimes addressing misconceptions requires some serious pedantry …. soooooo …. ants are related to wasps. They sting just like wasps … with their nasty little bum-mounted hollow daggers, through which they squirt formic acid. They don’t bite in defence … they bite food not humans. Ta da!
June 30th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
It’s Friday?
June 30th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
BTW, with Harper in charge, all of you are Ant Chow.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Red Ant: Mmmm, maple-flavored!
June 30th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Those ants have restored my belief in pesticides.
July 1st, 2009 at 10:20 am
Those ants are wee nasty bastards
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:52 am
Despite my reluctance to disagree with anything/one sporting tartan, many “fire ant” species (in this case Myrmica rubra) are indeed highly aggressive defenders of their territory, and quite prepared to mount aggressive raids on other ants, insects, lizards, turtle nests or even large mammals like cattle or horses (even people’s homes) should events make an attack necessary (something as simple as stepping heavily close to a colony will do it). And that the suggestion that all ant stings contain formic acid is equally flawed. Many ant species are possessed of alkaloid and other toxin mixtures that operate rather like flesh-eating bacteria and permanently destroy animal cells as well as sparking what can be fatal allergic-type histamine reactions in both humans and animals.
More research and less certainty required . . .
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:20 am
TT, you a pedant?
Cormac1, the MJ story seemed more worthy of my Friday post
Cormac2 I declare you officially Canadian, such is your keen understanding of our politics and predicament
Cormac3, maple red ants with maple syrup, mmmm
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:21 am
Shelagh, nasty nasty nasty
Macadamia Man, thank you for insights, we are now much less certain!
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I wouldn’t worry too much about getting bit by one, but getting stung by one hirts!
July 3rd, 2009 at 2:45 pm
“I declare you officially Canadian, such is your keen understanding of our politics and predicament”
I wish I could be, but I am precluded by my fear of the cold.