Tawny crazy ants can seem unbeatable, killing wildlife, invading buildings, and even shorting out motors and electrical devices—but new research finds a funguslike pathogen may be their kryptonite.
Tawny crazy ants can seem unbeatable. These invasive insects march through warm climates, killing wildlife, invading buildings, and even shorting out motors and electrical devices with their huge swarms. Pesticides barely slow them down. Yet they sometimes vanish mysteriously.
Tawny crazy ants go through such volatile cycles. Like other crazy ant species, they’re named for their unpredictable movements while foraging. Native to Brazil and neighboring countries, tawny crazy ants spread to the Caribbean by the 20th century, and to the southern United States by the late 1990s. Once in a new place, the ants hitch a ride in landscaping supplies, for example, or in RVs. After a nest is established,The ecological impact is even more drastic.
To figure out how the pathogen destroys colonies, LeBrun brought samples of nests into the lab. Ants became infected as larvae when fed by workers. The subsequent infection shortened their lives by at least 24%. That’s especially bad for tawny crazy ants, because—as the team discovered—their queens only lay eggs from April to November, rather than year-round like most other ant species.
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