Fire Ant Mat Flood

What most do not realize is that hurricane season which begins in june and goes through the end of november is a popular time of year when homeowners in the southern united states are disturbed by another type of stinging insect.

Fire ant mat flood. When people think of stinging insects in the summer wasps or yellowjackets are likely to come to mind. Drop a clump of 100 000 fire ants in a pond of water or flood a huge area of texas that s infested with fire ants and drive them out of their nests in large groups. Floating fire ant colonies can look like ribbons streamers mats rafts or an actual ball of ants floating on the water texas a m university agrilife extension specialist paul nester said. A colony of fire ants survives flood conditions by joining together to form a floating mat.

The city of league city shared a video on twitter showing two fire ant colonies floating in beta flood waters at countryside park. How fire ants survive flood waters. In this case by using ant poison and killing off native species we may have simply provided an opportunity for the fire ants to come back with a vengeance without competition. But for texans sloshing through flood waters the most important fact about floating fire ants are the stings.

In the post the city warns people that those piles are one of. In the laboratory floating fire ant rafts survived from 24 hours to 12 days. A texas city released nightmarish video this week showing piles of ants floating in floodwaters caused by tropical storm beta.