Hurricane Harvey Latest Update: How to Deal With Floating Fire Ant Colonies
As if the flooding from the relentless rains brought by Hurricane Harvey was not enough, people in Houston now have to look out for floating colonies of fire ants. Piles of stinging insects, measuring several feet across in some cases, now float aimlessly after being displaced by the catastrophic floods.
People have taken to social media to warn others to avoid these floating menaces, which are now a common sight after Hurricane Harvey flooded the greater Houston area. These ants are clumped together as their form of defense to save their colony from the flood waters, and will aggressively climb solid surfaces that they come in contact with.
"We usually call fire ants flood water species," Molly Keck, an entomologist at Texas A&M AgriLife, told The Verge on Tuesday, Aug. 29. "They've been known well before this hurricane to float on top of water like that," she added, referring to the floating masses of fire ants that are now carrying their colonies' queen, eggs and larvae to relative safety.
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It's a big problem should one of these clumps brush up against some of the limited areas Houston residents have taken refuge in, like a roof. These clumps of fire ants, when they find a dry spot, have a tendency to build their colony right there and then.
People shouldn't just touch them, thinking they're harmless. Coming in to contact with a floating colony will usually signal the rest to start climbing on. "When the first one stings, they emit a pheromone that causes a chain reaction that tells everybody else to sting, so you're going to experience quite a few stings," Keck says.
A good suggestion is to just keep away from the path that the waters are taking them. A few waves can be enough to wash them away from a person. For those with a few resources on hand, spraying the raft with dish soap can be effective, according to Wired.
The video below shows a sizable colony of fire ants slowly being moved by the flood waters in Houston, Texas, as captured by Mike Hixenbaugh, a reporter for the HoustonChron.
