th15IH

Recommendations

Info

Once they move in, they gobble up all the food and make lots of babies, eventually taking resources from other ant species and amassing huge worker populations. By now, we all know that our native ants do many good deeds for our environment, from engineering the soil to keeping tree canopies healthy to planting our wild herb seeds. Suppose a crazy ant like a yellow-footed ant moved in and took all of the homesteads from our native ants or ate all their food? What would happen to our homegrown heroes? And what about the jobs they do? Many times, invasive species like yellow-footed ants spell trouble for our natural world. But yellow-footed ants are just the tip of the iceberg of crazy in Nylanderia world. Raspberry crazy ants, named for the exterminator who discovered them, Tom Raspberry, take outrageous ant behavior to a whole new level. Raspberry crazy ants originally come from Brazil and Argentina but made a homestead in Houston, Texas, a few years ago. Just like yellow-footed ants, they began to scarf down all the ant food they could find, turning that ant food into ant babies. Lots and lots of ant babies. In some places, Raspberry crazy ants became so numerous they overran human structures. They can reach such huge populations that they become more than a nuisance for humans; they become real trouble. Raspberry crazy ants, like their crazy ant cousins, nest in all kinds of crannies, and electrical boxes make perfect crannies for them. If a worker gets zapped in an electrical box, she’ll release a “Danger!” A Raspberry crazy ant, the craziest of the crazies. - © Alex Wild odor, called an alarm pheromone, which alerts her sisters that she’s in need of assistance. Her sisters will pour in en masse and flood the box, shorting out electrical equipment. The more that get zapped, the bigger the danger odor and the more ants pour in. It’s not unusual for people in the Southwestern United States to open electrical boxes and find them packed with tens of thousands of electrocuted ants. Crazy ants also get a case of the hangries. When these ladies get low on sugar, they become super aggressive and start swinging punches at anybody within reach. Like all Nylanderia, these bizarre trespassers can’t sting, but they build up such 45
School of Ants Map - Crazy Ant North American distribution of the crazy ant (Nylanderia flavipes). Visit www.schoolofants.org/species/1470 for an interactive version. tremendous populations that when they come to town, they can even wipe out the ornery red imported fire ants. While we might not always appreciate our crazy relatives (Uncle George’s monkey was a biter), they certainly do make our lives more interesting. Sometimes, they might take over the party. Even so, they’re fun to watch, and you can always count on them to show up. 46
Page 2 and 3: Introduction by Rob Dunn Nearly a d
Page 4 and 5: & Order knows, when you push aside
Page 6 and 7: up what scurried away. Sure enough,
Page 8 and 9: students had found. As James stared
Page 10 and 11: many individuals of Nylanderia flav
Page 12 and 13: A word cloud of ant species collect
Page 14 and 15: Credits About This Interactive Book
Page 16 and 17: 1 Ants What’s the big deal about
Page 18 and 19: and males have wings, those wings s
Page 20 and 21: Shorn larvae fall over like little
Page 22 and 23: While ant nests differ greatly, whe
Page 24 and 25: Meet the Black Carpenter Ant The bl
Page 26 and 27: Movie - Black Carpenter Ants I used
Page 28 and 29: 3 Lasius Ant Lasius Lasius ants are
Page 30 and 31: space. Many more types of engineers
Page 32 and 33: School of Ants Map - Lasius Ant hea
Page 34 and 35: Meet the Pavement Ant Wars happen i
Page 36 and 37: Pavement ants are not native to New
Page 38 and 39: Meet the Odorous House Ant People a
Page 40 and 41: These creatures depend on odorous h
Page 42 and 43: We know they love to nest in mulch.
Page 44 and 45: Meet the Crazy Ant Crazy relatives.
Page 48 and 49: 7 Winter Ant Prenolepis imparis Win
Page 50 and 51: All that depth serves a purpose. Wh
Page 52 and 53: the pinhole of light shining throug
Page 54 and 55: Meet the Field Ant Formica ants, us
Page 56 and 57: Sometimes their partiality for pudg
Page 58 and 59: School of Ants Map - Field Ant Nort
Page 60 and 61: Meet the Asian Needle Ant The Asian
Page 62 and 63: the area around the sting. For thos
Page 64 and 65: Our forest is a lot like the car fa
Page 66 and 67: Meet the Winnow Ant Aphaenogaster r
Page 68 and 69: Seed planting is a successful busin
Page 70 and 71: Meet the Big Headed Ant The first t
Page 72 and 73: Photo Gallery - Big heads, little h
Page 74 and 75: 12 Little Black Ant Monomorium mini
Page 76 and 77: In our ant stalkings, Will and I qu
Page 78 and 79: 13 Thief Ant Solenopsis molesta Nev
Page 80 and 81: they feel their way to and from foo
Page 82 and 83: Argentine ants and yellow crazy ant
Page 84 and 85: Meet the Acrobat Ant One summer, I
Page 86 and 87: Photo Gallery - Acrobat reproductiv
Page 88 and 89: 15 Honeyrump Ant Brachymyrmex depil
Page 90 and 91: School of Ants Map - Brachymymex An
Page 92 and 93: Agricultural and Forest Entomology,
Page 94 and 95: eetle (Coleoptera : Scarabaeidae) i
Page 96 and 97:
(Hymenoptera : Formicidae) and Lasi
Page 98 and 99:
Milford, E. 1999. Ant communities i
Page 100 and 101:
Nygard, J. P., Sanders, N. J. & Con
Page 102 and 103:
Naturwissenschaften, 98, 651-659. d
Page 104 and 105:
Muscedere, M. L., Traniello, J. F.
Page 106 and 107:
Predation and Parasitism of the Soy
Page 108 and 109:
Menzel, T. O. 2012. Interactions Be
show all

th15IH

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?