Electronics Junkies Swarming Towards Houston

We all know people who can't get enough of electronics, but their passion is nothing compared to that of the rasberry ant which invades and devours the electronic components of air conditioning units, security alarms, pool pumps, gas meters, and computers. While rasberry ants may sound like the stuff of science fiction films, they not only exist but have been spotted in and around Houston and have already launched one attack on NASA.

The New York Times featured the rasberry ant in its online article "A Pest without a Name". While it has been classified as a member of the genus Paratrechina, the species has yet to be officially named by the scientific community. Its nickname (the rasberry ant aka the crazy rasberry ant) comes from the Pearland exterminator Tom Rasberry who first identified the species as a local problem. For now, entymologists are simply referring to these ants as Paratrechina near pubens.

Scarcely larger than a flea, the rasberry ant makes up in numbers what it lacks in size. Rasberry ant colonies have multiple queens, with each queen laying up to one million eggs per ant hill per day. According to the Texas Department of Agriculture, infestations can reach fifty million ants per acre during their peak season (June through September). When an infested areas is treated with pesticides, the initial wave of rasberry ants die; then the remaining ants use their dead comrades as a bridge to safely cross the pesticide treated ground.

What can you do to protect your home from rasberry ants? The Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Department of Agriculture are still researching the answer to that question. If you do find your home faced with an infestation, seek out an exterminator who has had experience battling this particular species and prepare to pay several times more than you normally would to get rid of fire ants.