A new breed of "crazy ants" have been introduced in the U.S., the insects will bother anything from livestock to electronics, ABC News reported.
The ants are known in the scientific community as Nylanderia fulva, but they are more commonly called the "tawny crazy ant."
Crazy ants were accidentally imported from Argentina and Brazil, they are so small that millions can fit underneath a small rock. The ant was first seen in Houston, Texas in 2002, but has now spread into Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
They can be quite a nuisance, and are known to invade homes and even infest electronics. They don't sting but their bites scare away wildlife. In fact, the ants can harm the entire ecosystem, by completely taking over food sources.
Researchers at Texas A&M have found the ants are resistant to over-the-counter red ant killer, so if there is an infestation it can only be taken care of by professionals.
Both red and crazy ants are attracted to electrical wires for unknown reasons. Last year in Texas, ants they did an estimated $146.5 million worth of damage to electronics.
When a single ants gets into a piece of electrical equipment it often gets electrocuted, it then "waves its abdomen in the air (called gaster flagging) to release its own brand of perfume, which lures many more ants to the scene."
This is a vicious circle because the more ants that die from the equipment, the more "perfume" there is in the air, and the more ants come to check it out.
The ecosystem has already been affected by different species of insects that have been mistakenly carried over from other countries.
"Perhaps the biggest deal is the displacement of the fire ant," LeBrun said, in releasing his study," Ed LeBrun of the University of Texas, Austin, said. "The whole ecosystem has changed around fire ants. Things that can't tolerate fire ants are gone. Many that can have flourished."
LeBrun's team found that nearly all red ants were eliminated in areas where crazy ants had infested. The red ants either decided to go elsewhere, or starved because of lack of resources that the crazy ants had taken.
Crazy ants don't move very far on their own, so the only way they could spread would be by stowing away with humans. LeBrun urges travelers to always check their luggage carefully for foreign insects that may be trying to catch a ride.
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