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Pests.........Lira Take these back!!! PLEASE!
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| LazFX |
Texas battling Brazilian fire ants
| quote: | Chris Marrou
KENS 5 Eyewitness News
They are annoying -- the state's unwelcome guest whose bite can sting so bad.
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They are fire ants, but not just any kind of fire ant. These creepy crawlers came all the way from Brazil.
"The red imported fire ant, which is the one that we have here that’s not native, are much more dangerous than our native fire ants," said Molly Keck, Bexar County Entomologist.
And expensive.
A 2001 study shows the state of Texas spent nearly $2 billion trying to fend off these ants. The foreign pests are blamed for attacking farm animals, destroying utility boxes and land.
"They really messed things up when they first came here," Keck said. "And they are still messing things up."
But hopefully not for long. Researchers are working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to try and keep the red fire ants under control.
Professor Larry Gilbert heads the fire ant research lab at the University of Texas at Austin. He gave me an up close look at where ants come to die.
Now here's where the story starts to sound like a science-fiction movie. The female phorid fly emerges from the head of its victim it kills. The ant assassin eats up everything inside the foreign ant's head, and then the head falls off. So one phorid fly will kill one fire ant.
Keck says this changes the way the red fire ant behaves. Instead of looking for a kid’s leg to chew on during the day, the ant hides from the phorid flies and come out more during the night.
But that's not always the case.
"My first graduate student working on this project, her first day out in the field she was stung and went into anaphalatic shock," Gilbert said.
Usually you're bitten by more than one ant. There are reports of as many as 600 ants attacking a single person.
Researchers look toward releasing more phorid flies to keep these intruding ants from marching in and taking over. |
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Nothing is worse than about 20-100 of these little buggers crawling up on your foot and stinging your ass!
I know that there a number of international posters here, so whats your pest..a nice lil break from the norm on here.......
AND NO LILITH... we know already about the Rabid Koala Bears already ;) lol |
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| Lilith |
| quote: | Originally posted by LazFX
AND NO LILITH... we know already about the Rabid Koala Bears already ;) lol |
No, the Koala's are gay, customs keeps out animals and people with rabies.
Bull Ants are about an inch long and can see about 10ft with fairly good eyesight, so if you're about that far away from the nest they hunt you down and sting... and sting... and sting. I've seen them jump about 1-2ft at a time too, they're absolute bastards and really hurt.
Like most things that bite people in this damn country they don't need to import some mincing little ant from Brazil, the local stuff is horrible enough.
Funnel web, it bites you and it can bite through a leather boot, kills humans dead in 30mins- 1hour if you're not treated. About 4inches across, they can jump 1-2ft and highly aggressive some times of the year or it just comes inside to get out of the rain and goes sleepy time in your shoes until you stick your foot in there and *CHOMP*, apparently it's like having a red hot piece of iron being stuck into you.
King brown snake and the Eastern Brown, both look much the same, angry, bites people and kills them in about 30mins-2hrs.
These grow about 6-7ft long, people make a lot of fuss about Taipans and Tiger snakes which have more potent venom, but these are the ones that actually kill a few people. Do not pat.
Weinercats, only really a threat to men and given a lack of people that actually qualify as men, no real concern. I'd like to start my own weinercat farm and hold to ransom 50% of the population, the other 50% I'll just sell cosmetics too, they'll be happy and I'll rule the world.
Redback spider, kills kids if they're bitten and makes adults very sick, not very aggressive but they live in dark places around where people do so they bite people a fair bit.
Cane toads, are in plague proportions in the north of Australia, they don't bite anyone, they just eat a lot of native animals and the native animals that bite them die because they have huge amounts of venom in the sacks behind their head.
Cliché American tourists, sadly customs doesn't keep enough out as apparently being a noisy, obese, obnoxious and being condescending the local population isn't enough to keep them on the boat. They don't bite and they're not allowed to bring their guns over here, but they also don't understand wit either so you can tease them and they don't get it, they will invade your country though if your not white, have a lot of oil and/or not under a functional democracy.
This is a Serval, they grow about 40-50cm at the shoulder and can run really damn fast, I had a couple on the farm in Africa, who used to wander through every now and then eating the chickens. They where so rare I didn't have the heart to shoot them, they don't bite people apparently unless you try to pat them
and one more
European backpackers, in plague proportions, they save up their giro until they have barely enough money to get here, proceed to lie around on beaches getting burnt, drink a lot, drop a lot of E and living in crummy hotels and hostels until they run out of money. Then they either cry to mum to wire them more money (Scandinavian ones), drop their pants for truck drivers (English), work on fruit picking jobs (Italians) or work in pubs (Irish) to support their numerous addictions.
They don't bite, though some of their STD's might so don't pat them either. |
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| LazFX |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lilith
Cliché American tourists, sadly customs doesn't keep enough out as apparently being a noisy, obese, obnoxious and being condescending the local population isn't enough to keep them on the boat. They don't bite and they're not allowed to bring their guns over here, but they also don't understand wit either so you can tease them and they don't get it, they will invade your country though if your not white, have a lot of oil and/or not under a functional democracy.
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^^ ha ha ha that was choice ^^
but then again you can take this S.O.B. Back!!!
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| Lira |
Oh, oh, we had these in my old house! :D
Eventually, after being attacked twice, my father declared war on them and bought a rather powerful venom, as I recall it. |
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| MisterOpus1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
Oh, oh, we had these in my old house! :D
Eventually, after being attacked twice, my father declared war on them and bought a rather powerful venom, as I recall it. |
What, the tourists or the wienercats? :D |
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| Marc Summers |
The title made me LOL!
We don't have any foreign invasions around here... Yet. |
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| Shakka |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lilith
This is a Serval, they grow about 40-50cm at the shoulder and can run really damn fast, I had a couple on the farm in Africa, who used to wander through every now and then eating the chickens. They where so rare I didn't have the heart to shoot them, they don't bite people apparently unless you try to pat them
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Looks like the family cat ed a cheetah. Seriously, it's like a tiger that eats Fancy Feast. |
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| LazFX |
Oh i forgot, another Pest: especially here in Austin TX...
frigging Long Horn Fans
A real Pest!! ;) |
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| Lilith |
| quote: | | Originally posted by LazFX A real Pest!! ;) |
I think I choked back a bit of sick... :sadgreen:
| quote: | | Originally posted by Shakka Looks like the family cat ed a cheetah. Seriously, it's like a tiger that eats Fancy Feast. |
Some people apparently keep them as pets, given how rowdy a domestic cat is, multiply that by about 4 and add about 25kg or so of teeth, claws and 'Stuff you!' attitude... I can see it ending in tears. :nervous: |
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