State seeks help to fight ants terrorizing Texas computers, NASA

Computerworld - After ignoring the situation for years, the state of Texas today asked the federal government for funding to study the flood of voracious ants that have been swarming across the state since 2002.

The ants have been causing all kinds of trouble in five Texas counties in the Gulf Coast area -- even threatening critical systems at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Because of their sheer numbers, the ants are short-circuiting computers in homes and offices, and knocking systems offline in major businesses.

The insects have been dubbed Crazy Rasberry ants after Tom Rasberry, owner of Budget Pest Control in Pearland, Texas. Rasberry, who began fighting the prolific ants back in 2002, said he recently turned to the media for help because he wasn't getting any help from state or federal agencies. His plan worked.

Rasberry told Computerworld that earlier this week that the Texas Department of Agriculture had been calling the Crazy Rasberry ants "unactionable," on Monday changed its stance on the problem and decided to seek the research funds.

"We're in a lot better shape than we were a week ago," said Rasberry, who added that he first approached the state for help five years ago. "Last Friday, I called the Department of Agriculture and told them I would release their stance to the media. They changed their stance by Monday. It was blackmail. I won't deny it. Something needed to be done."

Veronica Obregon, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Agriculture, said the agency today sent a letter to undersecretaries at the U.S. Department of Agriculture explaining the problem in Texas and asking for help. She added that the letter noted that it's "unlikely [the problem] can be eradicated. However, it's crucial to slow its spread and reduce the numbers to a tolerable level."

Obregon said the agency does not plan to use state funding to research the ants. "I'm assuming it's because we don't have it," she added. "This is why we go to our federal partners."

Rasberry said he's just excited at the prospect of finally getting some help in battling the ants.

"If we can get some money into research to know what their reproductive cycles are, their exact food sources. If you know these things, you can develop products and baits that would at least slow them down," he explained. "I don't think we'll eradicate them. They're too widespread."

Exterminators have found it nearly impossible to kill the ants. Oh, you can kill some of them -- the first wave, maybe. However, there are so many more ants coming behind them, that the first wave falls dead in the insecticide and the subsequent waves merely walk on the dead bodies, keeping themselves out of the poison and safe from harm.