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.
Fire ant mat flood.
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.
But for texans sloshing through flood waters the most important fact about floating fire ants are the stings.
In the laboratory floating fire ant rafts survived from 24 hours to 12 days.
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.
In minutes the clump will.
Before flooding fire ant colonies may contain up to 100 000 worker ants.
A colony of fire ants survives flood conditions by joining together to form a floating mat.
The frightening footage posted tuesday by officials in league city sou.
In the post the city warns people that those piles are one of.
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.