[OT?] Giant ant colony conquers Europe!

[AmerginLiath]

Dang superorganized Formians!

 

[EOL]

All I can say is, WOW! That's an insane number of ants.

 

[Alaric_Prympax]

Hey, don't you Californians say that: CA's the place you ought to be!

Or was that a TV show?

Sorry, but here in LA we've been fighting Fire Ants since, since,... well before I was born.

 

[Green Knight]

In related news, the French government has formally declared today that it has surrendered to the giant ant colony. Details to follow...

 

[kenjib]

Up here in the Pacific Northwest we have imported Hobo Spiders and Giant House Spiders from Europe. They are all over the place. They crawl in my bathtub. They crawl across my floor. They crawl through my bedroom. They get as big as a silver dollar.

Both species look pretty much identical. You have to be trained to tell the difference. The problem is that the Giant House Spider is not a problem but the Hobo Spider is potentially deadly. I don't know what the ones crawling around in my house are.

I feel all itchy now thinking about it. Thanks Europe. Necrosis is a fun thing, no?

Oh, kudzu has also just started to appear up here and ecologists are understandably quite worried about it. Thanks Japan.

So, what alien monstrosity do you have in your neck of the woods?

 

[MythandLore]

Hey, don't you Californians say that: CA's the place you ought to be!

Or was that a TV show?

I don't know?
I don't think I've heard that before?
Is it a commercial where you live?

Sorry, but here in LA we've been fighting Fire Ants since, since,... well before I was born.

Are the fire ants in LA the native or non-native?
We have native ones in CA but they are becoming endangered from the new ants.
I think all of the southern states have the invading fire ants now, I remeber when I was kid and visted Texas there were fire ants.
I'll take the Argentine ants over Fire ants any day.
They really aren't that bad, they like foods with high suger content and fatty meats.
Just don't leave that stuff out for them and they really aren't that big a problem.
But if you do, BAM, there can be thousands in like 10 minutes.
At least I don't have to worry about being stung to death by them.
I just hope we don't get your Formosan subterranean termites, now that would be really bad.

I have fully decided that I will NEVER move south after being reminded of how much I hate bugs. Scorpions, centipedes, fire ants....*shudders* [/B]

I have yet to have seen any of those in the wild in CA, the bees worry me more, and their coming your way, seeing as they will be any place normal honey bees are.

Up here in the Pacific Northwest we have imported Hobo Spiders and Giant House Spiders from Europe. They are all over the place. They crawl in my bathtub. They crawl across my floor. They crawl through my bedroom. They get as big as a silver dollar.
Both species look pretty much identical. You have to be trained to tell the difference. The problem is that the Giant House Spider is not a problem but the Hobo Spider is potentially deadly. I don't know what the ones crawling around in my house are.

We do have the black widows here, those suckers are big, and you do see them all the time.
As far a "invader" ones we have the South American recluse spider by me too.
That's a bad bad bad one.
I got bit on my foot by one when I was a kid, it was really weird the poison melted the flesh on the inside of my foot but it didn't do anything to the skin.
It was like someone took and ice cream scoop out of my foot but didn't touch the skin.
But I was poking around a place I shouldn't have though, where I used to find all kinds of weird albino and blind bugs.

 

[Tetsubo]

Anyone ever read the book or see the movie Phase IV? It deals with a colony of anys that achieves sentience and begins to control their environment. Including the humans in it. I rather enjoyed both.

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0070531

My first thought after reading this article was Gamma World campaign idea!

 

[Reddragon]

ants

Wow, I have actually learned something new today! I didn't know anything about the Argt. ants.

I did live in Texas at one time and got bit by some fire ants. Those buggers really HURT! (I wore my shoes out side after that) LOL

Also being from the north and moving to the south for a short time is an adventure. I had a scorpian in my apartment and a rattlesnake in the car. - No thank you TX. I will stay in Illinois.

 

[Barovan]

Politicians, that is the monstrous creatures that inhabits the area I live in....Washington DC!

Barovan
No Sig!

 

[MaxKaladin]

Re: ants

I did live in Texas at one time and got bit by some fire ants. Those buggers really HURT! (I wore my shoes out side after that) LOL

Also being from the north and moving to the south for a short time is an adventure. I had a scorpian in my apartment and a rattlesnake in the car. - No thank you TX. I will stay in Illinois.

Hah! I hear tell you get SOLID WATER falling from the SKY up there and you're worried about a few bugs and snakes? No thanks, I'll keep the critters. At least you can deal with them.

I've also heard you get clouds of gnats and/or mosquitos flying around up there. While you have both types of bugs around here, you really don't see them in that quantity very often.

[old geezer mode on]
I'm old enough to remember when fire ants first showed up in Texas. I've noticed since then that many other kinds of bugs, especially unpleasant ones, no longer seem to be around very often if at all. I thik the ants got rid of a lot of them somehow.
[/old geezer mode on]