Just now.
I hate them.
They obviously knew who they were dealing with - a moron from Nevada who had no idea that her flower bed would be teeming with little stinging organisms and therefore, put her hand right in the middle of their evil habitat.
I thought I had the last laugh when I smashed them and put WD-40 on their ant mound.
But I was wrong.
Because those little ant bites itched for approximately 5 years. And now that I'm finally recovering, I actually have scars.
While I was researching fire ants, I found out that they are not indigenous to the south but that they were accidentally introduced here in the 30's. I think whomever is responsible should accidentally be kicked repeatedly in the crotch.
I also found that the US government, in all their glory, has a program aimed at ridding the world of fire ants. It's pure genius.
They're introducing decapitating phorid flies.
The female flies find the fire ants by sniffing (or whatever flies do) out their venom. Then, they lay their eggs in the ant's thorax. When the larvae emerges, it moves to the ant's head and, get this, eats out the inside of the head until it falls off.
Here's a excerpt from the article, which, by the way, made me snort so hard, I blew water out of my nose:
Fierce as they are, phorid flies will never succeed in wiping out fire ants entirely. Instead, they make the ants’ lives a living hell through constant attacks. Mortally frightened by the flies, worker ants cower in their mounds and miss out on the day-to-day foraging necessary for survival.
It's like Silence of the Lambs. Except with flies.
My only remaining question is this: when will they be available for purchase at Walmart?
Because if they'll terrorize the ants, I'll totally buy a giant vat of flies.
.
BEFORE:
.AFTER:
Mmwahhaaaaa.....that's me....laughing evilly.
3 comments:
I stepped on an old tree trunk in our backyard when I was little and had to jump straight in the pool to get my covered foot clear of those buggers. No love lost for the 45 that drowned that day. I think I'll invest in those flies, too. That has got to be the coolest thing I've ever seen!
So don't miss MS for the exact reason you're complaining. What I want to know is: Do we really want to introduce another pest (these rather masochistic flies) to torture an already existing pest?
And the answer to your question, Clarissa is, YES, OF COURSE. The flies are so little you could only see them with a microscope. Now onto our next problem: mosquitoes...
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