Houston infected with electronic-eating ants
Houston has been hit with a computer bug like no other: a swarm of ants that are eating through electronics. The “Crazy Raspberry Ants” are believed to have arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship, and are causing widespread mayhem. For some unknown reason they are attracted to electrical equipment, which is causing problems for residents in the Deep South. The ants have destroyed PCs in homes and offices, ruined pumps at a sewage treatment plant and even taken a fancy to homeowners’ gas meters, according to reports from the Associated Press. “If you open a computer, you would find a cluster of ants on the motherboard and all over,” said Tom Raspberry, the owner of Budget Pest Control and the man the ants have been named after.
“You’d get 3,000 or 4,000 ants inside and they create arcs. They’ll wipe out any computer,” he told Computerworld. The Johnson Space Center has reportedly called in pest control experts to make sure the little critters don’t start chomping their way through NASA’s computer systems. Although, according to Raspberry, he’s already seen colonies on the NASA site. So what should worried PC owners be looking for? “They’re itty-bitty things about the size of fleas, and they’re just running everywhere,” Patsy Morphew of Pearland, told AP. “There’s just thousands and thousands of them. If you’ve seen a car racing, that’s how they are. They’re going fast, fast, fast. They’re crazy.”
Source: AP, PC Pro
Comments(161)
This has to be fake…
Wow that is crazy! Im in central Texas, i hope they dont spread!
….*crackle*…Huston…we have a problem…
sounds like a april’s fool prank but this is for real
Everything should be fine… Batman is there.
hear around austin ant will get in our outside AC units and completely stop them up.
well they sure picked the right decade to boom on, back to the stoneage with mankind..your puter is doomed by the electro munchin critters..
private picture??
lol
Thats it, we are screwd.
Beware Of The Ants. In A Computer Next To You. Coming in May 21st.
Fake
and rated PG for no nudity.
they should get some ant skin to cover up the losses.
NOT FAKE
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3941545.ece
ONE MORE
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080514/ap_on_re_us/texas_ants
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355741,00.html
CONVINCED
I’m in Texas and this is the first I’ve heard of this. Sounds ominous indeed.
First electrical equipment. Then mankind! I’m building a bunker. A couple of chairs and bed sheet should do the trick. I advise you do the same.
Cool I like ants and computers… so Computer Ants are great!
It’s Y2K.
They are aliens I tell you!!!!
WE NEED
NORTON ANTI ANTZ
i got ushers new album woot woot woottt!!!
pirate albums FTW!!!
I said they would after The Ant Bully movie, again US has step on the wront toes
wrong UPS
antz will take over the world
RUN!!!!!
each ant colony has millions of crittersm each ant has 6 legs, imagine the amount of toes
Who cares about anthrax filled parcels, just send some ants
WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!??! man… this is old news for entomology…US is far back in science research….third worldish are we?
ITS BATMAN!
has anyone here read ‘the hacker and the ants’?
well, i didn’t think so.
Its believed the ants got on cargo ships somewhere in Europe. In fact, the Europeans themselves placed the ants aboard the ships. Why? Because they are jealous of out superior economy and are trying to slow us down.
well my sister lives near the sea,in texas near the gulf the ants want come near the water hee he,can the usa air force send a mother of all bombs to blow em to kingdoom???oh i forgot america cant fight on the ground send some taliban to the ants they smell bad the taliban the ants will soon run from the usa back to where they come from,in the bible the mark of the beast was 666 is th beast the ants??they did say the beast would roam the earth ants maybe???well take care america have luck not even the national guard can stop this invasion of the ants from spreading,theory if we get more global warming more ants breed,
I thought this was fake!
News Video http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=B42750BB27A650FDD8096D14DC334E71?contentId=6543882&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1
THE END OF WORLD IS NIGH!
This is gods punishment to the unbelievers of USA, seriously, ants? Be glad it’s not mice.
@34 Zen now thats the best laugh i have had 2day thanks
Back in the late 90s something very similar happened in Brasil.
@34 LOLOLOLOLOLOL nice one zen… god… my stomach….LOLOLOL
NUKED electronic-eating ants TS.XViD-dood]- -[reencoded.from.p2p.source]-lol
I wonder why the ants aren’t killing themselves when chewing on 12v wires.. Unless…. OH MY GOD! They are some kind of electric ants!! :O
Haha jealous of your superior economy? Your economy, what economy? =) US is like somalia only another place on the map! You have the bigest depht on the planet! The Most stupid ppl in the world and you think your so F***ING great, why? Maby its Busch your proud off? I hope that they nuke the whole middle east and the US… Then we sane ppl can get on whit living in peace and harmony! So hurray to you Cowboy! Or shuld i say hillbilly? And if you are wondring why my spelling sucks its becuse im european, but dont mind you cute little head whit that becuse ive heard americans are to dumb to find it on the map!
I live in north central texas and truly hope they dont make it up here. at least the raspberry ants eat fire ants (if you havent been stung by fire ants then you have no idea….lol)
Will the Intel sticker be changing to Insect Inside?
I’m fron Houston, TX and I just learned about these guys. I think my prevenetive plan will be too pee a huge circle around my house. I gotta drink some louisiana hot sauce first probably ’bout 2 bottles worth. Then of course some Lone Star Beer to fuel the hose. Those raspberrie bushes, oh I mean ants, wont know what hit them. hehehe.
- are believed to have arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship
Yaya its worldwide world
@Chrisse (stupid euro trash), btw we are mighty proud of Busch Beer thank you, and by the looks of it your name signifies your a girl right? and your posting comments on rlslog right? You must be one ugly stupid euro trash girl.
OMG! Fire Ants,Now Crazy Raspberry Ants,Next is Nano Ants..
Will we ever get rid of them?
Omg, stupid pixar/disney movies… it gave them new ideas
lol like replicators from stargate
Who cares about computers, wait til the ‘rogue ants’ find the power stations! We are all doomed….
i can see the propaganda coming:
I WANT YOU… to kill an ant today!
send some too the credit building
Uncle Sam wants YOU
to pick up a can of Raid…
Nature strikes back! It was just a question of time…
Surround my house with a moat of burning gasoline. Yup, thats what I’m gonna do.
Tom
@41…. I’m sorry but you are about an idiot. The U.S. might be in debt but we generate trillions of dollars a year, so a little debt is only a minor concern. Not to mention we spend 25% of our national budget on military which no other country comes close to, simply to defend other peoples freedoms. Oh maybe you forgot.. if it wasn’t for us all you dumb euro’s would be speaking german by now. oh and btw atleast are leader has to balls to do something about the middle east. U.S. = greatest nation on earth. So yes you are jealous.
good thing i live on another continent
The little dude is like: Don’t mess with me, ants!
Shame he did not invest the money in schools.
Maybe you would have learnt to spell.
So yes we are jealous, cant believe you are so thrilled he spends all your money on the military….you are obviously not poor then.
I also think your debt is a concern, considering so many people cant pay their mortgage…but you are obviously still living with Mom and Dad, and they have not told you yet.
Enjoy…
Ignorance is bliss
Just buy a Mac
how on earth do you arrive at “if it wasn’t for us all you dumb euro’s would be speaking german by now.”
“we spend 25% of our national budget on military which no other country comes close to” – most other countries have more important things to spend money on. like healthcare and education. spending 25% of a national budget on the military is something any normal person would be ashamed of.
Nice 5Deuce give em the cold hard facts. So europeans,… you can all go suck it. Your shifty P.M. is in bed with our president, but he’s at the foot of the bed like some old sick dog waiting to be put down. Hows about we just send yall a couple of care packages courtesy of TX filled with our new raspberry friends, huh I got the time. I can find out what sh$tty little countryside town you live in and have FedExed ants in your computer by tommorow, that is the power of our economy.
“The Outstanding Public Debt as of 16 May 2008 at 04:00:57 PM GMT is:
9367 283 113435.01 dollars
How much is that again? ~9 trillion dollars? That’s nothing man…
Interesting. The plus side is that the ants could help break down e-waste. I wonder how they do this. <— science geek
Your right you would not be speaking german you would BE german becuz they would have rap#d your mommas and made you little aryan euro trash. Had we not had the greatest military power and a most noble consciouss to help people out across a freaking ocean, then yall would have been hung out to dry. I could care less, Germans have always been arrogant, all you losers euro trash who act arrogant have no reason to be arrogant, there is nothing special about you.
Ouch, I’m happy I don’t live there xP
Send in the Pink Panther and your problem is solved.
Dead-ant.
Dead-ant.
Dead-ant dead-ant dead-ant dead-ant dead-aaaant.
da-da-da dead-ant.
Whats wrong with speaking German?
Oh BTW, Capt Spaulding: I’m as proud of being an American as you are, I’m sure. But gotta give it to those Europeans: they host a GREEAAAAAT website like this so that anybody in the world can benefit from it.
“Peace through superior firepower.”
The usa saved the world in the second war in europe? lol is your education system THAT bad.
The russians are the primary reason the second war in europe ended – if anyone saved the euro’s it was the russians.
“aryan” – do you even know what that word means. 80% of the usa as well as the european population is aryan you idiot.
Europe is not a unified country you idiot, so how on earth is “their pm in bed with your president”. many nations don’t have a pm (they have presidents of their own). There is no “Euorpean PM” as you seem to think.
“The power of your economy” – lol are you living 50years ago – the US economy is a mess, the world is about to stop trading in USD$ because it’s in such a state.
Even the chinese laugh at the american economy now.
please don’t be such a spastic, it makes americans look bad (and I know the vast majority of americans are nice people).
@55 & @41 ,
You’re both right, and You’re both idiots.
America has more power than any country in the world, and we use it t convert and destroy anyone not like us.
That is not good.
It goes deeper than location, to religion.
No specific religion, but religion in general is why Bush got elected… It was Blair’s excuse for not stepping up to Bush and saying no, and it is the ENTIRE reason there is conflict in the middle east.
Before you blame one location, look at the big picture and what is really causing the problems. Americans are no better or worse than any other people.
We have more power, but until we use it fairly and justly, we don’t deserve it.
at least Spaulding is good for a laugh
but then it makes me sad how stupid ppl can be
Is al qaida training these ants? Its frightening, if they can train them to eat electronics they could train them to eat christians.
Nice of yall to think that we all voted for our pres and approve of what he is doing, I hate bush as much as anyone else, but stuck up countries who have never helped anything but themselves have no say. Im one of the believers that Bush and Blair planned 9/11 to start a war. But a few bad seeds do not represent our great country I think were great becuz we have created things like South Park and NASCAR and Lone Star Beer.
@69 oh yeah, Russia ended the war…good one.
and yes Im not being serious, just American.
LOL @ 72
whenever anything goes wrong in this crappy little world, why bother finding a solution when we can just blame it on those pesky kuran-reading muslims…
lol
thnx to everyone thats keeping the comments less serious..laughed hard and long to many of the inputs..still do..
Here in Brasil we use this as pets now:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Tamandua
Works just fine =D
@69 MelC
Well said.
BTW I am an American
Russians did not the end the war thier freezing cold country did. That does not mean thier people did anything except know how to stay warm.
This is obviously a Chinese conspiracy. They did some kind of genetic engineering and then spread the ants here!
@QstorM – 79
This kind of ant exists in Brasil for like 20 years,
they got my VCR =(
The end of the civilised world is near -___-
Antz for F’s sakes !
from that perception yes the russians didnt win the war but the americans did neither the nazis just gave up
Chrisse wants to nuke me?
Why in the world they zone in on electrical appliances?! I’m betting they´re made of some kind of nano-technology that require electricity to go about their crazy antics! But who’s behind this monstruous conspiracy? The chinese? Bin-Laden? Aliens?
Pictures of the attacks:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v520/postarfoto/Formigas1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v520/postarfoto/Formigas2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v520/postarfoto/Formigas3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v520/postarfoto/Formigas4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v520/postarfoto/Formigas5.jpg
Can’t the Texans just spray bugspray on their electronics and kill these ants?
It just doesn’t make sense that they can’t figure this out.
they look red so its probably Russian ants, or maybe al qaida want to cover it up and painted them red.
is there a risk that they could spread through the internet if they get into electronics that are online? I don’t have a firewall so i´m a little bit worried
This sounds the same as an episode of Regenesis i saw some time back. (I think it was Regenesis anyway)
Its happening..The Happening!
Just a publicity stunt for the new Manoj Shyamalan movie folks..LOL!
These may be crit-o-bots sent by the Decepticons so that they can take out the defence system in advance.
Then they can nail Optimus’s a$$
This is quite common. We had ants like that in Cairo in the early 90’s.
@ Capt Spaulding: You really are a bad example of an american, I guess that´s why you re-elect bush…Do you realize how the russian people suffer to defeat the nazis? You have no idea man, and I think you never had the guts to do that for your country. Go home and lock yourself inside for a long time!
whatever – it teh USA
@86
They are resistant to most known bugsprays
what is with all of the anti american sentiments in here honestly the article is about ants, wtf is everyones problem? who the fck cares about WW2, most of you weren’t even alive when it happened. Yes the US economy is crap at the moment. That proves nothing, there are always periods of lows and periods of highs, I mean honestly, what do you think the great depression was? The economy will bounce back, we will eventually get out of Iraq, and no one should say anything about education in the states, WE have the exact same education as everywhere else. Im an IB grad, so I know this is true. Stop hating on Americans, honestly we are the same as you. Americans hating on euro’s are dumb too, we are the same damn people.
And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords
sounds like a terrorist attack, some foreign bastards dropped off some crazy mutant ants that wont die from over the counter poison and eat electronics.
maybe they were trained to withstand poison and trained to go after electronics for food
This is biological warfare , third world war is upon us…
@84 & 86
.
They “choose” electrical appliances because of the heat source. Buy cryogenic cooling for your PC or put it in the freezer if its already infected
it sounds like these are some genetically engineered weaponised ants. must be another alCIAda attack.
At least i know that they can survive here in Quebec
Minus 30 in winter hehe
to The PinkPanther…nice word play…….Henri Mancini is turning over in his grave……….but that’ because the ants are eating his Ipod……
@73, wow you got NASCAR… now i know you are dumb redneck.
Damm!t, I live in Houston too. I guess is anyone doesn’t see me for a bit.. the ants got my computer =(
Damm!t, I live in Houston too. I guess if anyone doesn’t see me for a bit.. the ants got my computer =(
NASA ran out of RAID?
ANTS vs. HUMANS …. LETS GO OUT tHERe for WAR !!! NUKE EM ALL :p
it has begun. the ants have come to reclaim the internet
George Orwell must be rolling in his grave! No wonder conspiracy theories are becoming more popular, there either dead on or???
All I see hear are jokes and ignorance. This is a WORLD WIDE concern. The War On Terror is a joke when the US leaves its borders and ports wide open. Hell, they tried to sell the ports not long ago. Something stinks with all this and I have serious concerns for the future of the US and mankind.
Good luck to all!!
ants are taking over the world.
lol @ the kid in the picture…
to put things straight:
The ONLY reason the US got involved with wwII was pearl harbour….after that they had to respond, and not let the nazis and their allies run amock like the first 3 years
don’t kid yourself with noble intentions, there is only one motivator nowadays and its $$$$$ …corporations simply OWN politicians in the USA…hell your voting system isn’t even worth calling democratic…..imo belgium is the country where you come closest to the fantasy of democracy as there you HAVE to vote, don’t go vote and you get fined
in the US it seems to me that if you vote for a candidate, you vote to give big power to their industrial buddies, oh, and screw the poor folk and throw people in jail for smoking a joint
on topic now :
(I’ve worked in some of europe’s biggest datacenters 0_0)
I would LOVE to get my hands on some of those ants and drop em off at some of my former employers
it’s an attack on the american infastructure! battle stations everyone!
They also eat fire ants and don’t bite humans
they die off during the fall
They’re being controlled by some sort of brain bug. Remember, the only good bug is a dead bug.
Its a newly improved attack on America. It’ll cripple their technologies.
It must be the talibans… damn they’re training ants now, and they got billllions!
Greeks saved ur asses in 2ndworld war
They delayed the germans enough so russians and allied dudes finish their work.
Houston we have a problem !!
Maybe we can find a way to put them to work like the Mexicans. F*** Texas!
Chavez sent them!
First, Microsoft says that it’s stopping the sale of XP, now we have the “Crazy Raspberry Ants” eating electronic equipment.
Is it coincidence, an evil scheme by MICRO$OFT, or…….
a new musical group: Bill Gates and the Raspberry Ants!!!!
WOOOOOO!!!!!
Hey staff, how about deleting the various country-bashing posts?
It is as simple as that before we kill our mother Earth she will live us broken and shuttered to the point in witch we will be nothing more than these ants in the last 3 years we had all the proof that we woke her angry now lets she what can we do to calm her cause the next wave might probably be the man eating beetles.Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit
Dont worry people we have batboy(see in pic) on the case!
to the people who say spray them with pesticides – wouldn’t liquids damage the electronics more?
@41, 58, 69, 112 and so on,
No country is perfect. Having said that, don’t let your own politicians and media shift your attention from unresolved problems in your own country to US bloopers.
The ants have Osama Binladen’s genes! OMFG!!
This topic reminded me of the “Ant Attack” game for the ZX spectrum, wow its been too long since i played that!
This is no joke, I live in south Texas, picked up my macbook pro and opened it to find an ant crawling across the screen. Thinking nothing of it, I squished it and went among my business. All of a sudden seconds later, a SWARM of them started flooding out of the vents, USB, screen, keyboard… everywhere, and they were all over the plug and mouse and inside the mouse.. It was a nightmare. I fought a battle for about 30 minutes cleaning them all out that day before leaving to school.
HEY!? I THINK APPLE IS DOING THIS, ‘CAUSE IT’S EATING ONLY PC’s, NOT MAC’s… [haha]
Wooo…its weird….how on earth do they digest plastic cables ?..have we jus found a way to decompose plastic ?..i knw this thut is crazy..but think bout it !
Yeah we got billions of them here in europe,they actually improved my internet connection,seems we reached some kind of symbiosis.i let them munch on old motherboards and stuff i dont need and they make the right connections.i think its brilliant.
maybe the ants that arrived to the land of god and fortune,got a bit dizzy from the long journey,and just started munching away without consulting the local community first!!
just a theory!but i could ask my private colony,they respond pretty good to binarys by now,i think with a further development of out friendship we can reach big hights.
sry for the americans who have to suffer from those
ignorant ants from across the big pond.
Hillarious and sad in one go.
Great to see that there is a least talking (even if not serious) going on between the countries and there fellow country men.
Every part of the world has it’s up and downsites.
I honestly cannot understand how ppl can put trust in political systems, knowing that it all goes down the drain.
Freedom, Democracy and Peace exsists only on the paper. There is no real freedom anymore, we are all bound to our work/life/enviromental circumstances. We are all held hostage by the economy. We bow down and say thanks when we get our a**es kicked again and again.
On Topic: I think, lets pick the ants up and put them all over the place. Whats wrong with having no electronics ? Think about the upsite, when was the last time you read a book or actually finished a thought before going back to the usual (TV/Internet/Movies … you name it) ?
We might all just come to our senses which is something you do not really have much time for in the “normal” life.
just my 2 cents
i blame black people for this…. X-(
I blame your momma…Tell her to close her legs so no more will come out.
finally a way to stop skynet and those terminators just send these ants at them we did it no more skynet lol
@131
They dont eat the cables, components or whatnot, they go to the appliances for the heat source and then they short the whole thing and themselves in the process, defenitively they are crazy arc ants…could they be the next generation superconductor ?
Here we are, people complaining about international politics when the real problem is these ants.
I live in Houston now, which means that this is gonna suck if I get infested.
Anyone hear anything about prevention?
–Günther
This is scary. I wonder what kills them? In another article, it says they refuse to die after being sprayed with over-the-counter poison.. That means they’ve tried a buncha different bug sprays for these stubborn little viruses.. I hope they find a solution soon. I wonder if they’re simply a product of mother nature? You don’t really see other animals/insects having THAT much obsession with man-made things. Makes me think it’s genetically engineered, or…GASP…anyone here remember “Small Soldiers”? I bet if you crack open one of those ants’ head, you’ll see a tiny, tiny microchip………..
One day, nano ants will arise…and we’ll all be doomed!
i thought this was a joke, but i looked it up and found this story:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3941545.ece
They swarm the electronics because of the heat source ? … I don’t live in the us but isn’t Texas a warm place to begin with . Just seems strange behaviour why do they need the extra heat or do they just swarm the electronics at night ?
This is a golden opportunity! Quick, someone round up a bunch of these ants and drop them off in the offices of the RIAA and MPAA!
i think 30 april was … xD
WTF!!
@3 & 17 lol
this looks like a job for BATMAN
@34 LMAO
Sounds like the RIAA’s new master scheme.
@ 10 & 39 ROTFL
:)
You stupid humans! We are not eating your computers, we are stealing your technologie to take over the world!!
OH sounds not good for me i think the stroggs are on earth to kill the human food !!!
LOL @ 43 , 28 & 107
Not funny @ 16, 25 & 99
HA! Just made you scroll back and fourth through the comments. Wasn’t actually referring to anyone.
I just don’t understand all the anti-US sentiments here. If you read the comments from beginning to end, it wasn’t someone from the US that started this sh!t. It was some Euro-douchebag that made a completely off-topic comment. something about the US “stepping on someones toes” or something of that nature. WTF is your problem with us? The middle-east has been at war for 1000 years. -with eachother. Muslims killing Muslims/Jews. etc etc. Don’t want your “toes stepped on”? The US has always tried to help the other UN countries and always, gets blasted in the end. I personally think the US should drop out of the UN, Seal it’s borders, and ship each country in the middle-east a nuke or two. Then let them go at it. Then those idiots can kill eachother permanently. I’d call it “Operation: Blown-Glass” A few nukes apiece for those warring idiots, and they’d turn that desert into glass. I don’t think we should be over there, and I don’t think it’s any of our concern if they want to terrorize eachother and war constantly, that’s their prerogative.
So when is america planning to invade the ant kingdom?
America, America, God shed His grace on thee
the RIAA or the MPAA… come on ppl think bigger then that how about the IRS. who annoys you more some grumbling buuger nattering on about copyright infringment or that four eyed accountant who take half your paycheque…. or are u all still too young to get paycheques
lmao @ the kid looking at the camera
wiki answers:Who Won WW2 for the Allies
Who really won? This is a contentious question.
Many scholars agree that the USSR (Soviet Union, Russia
im no scholar but this is what put all that sht to an end
http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/military/engineering/air/equipment/littleboy.htm
Germans gave up when they heard about this.
Me FTW
Finally, someone introduces more bugs into a PC that microsoft. If hick boy ★★★RLSLogKing★★★ wants to think us Europeans shipped the ants, then so be it. As soon as the rest of the world stop using your worthless USD for oil, your economy will be seen for what it is. As far as the war, seems to me that stealing all the german secrets and scientists turned you into the biggest warmongering nation in modern history.
lulz… funny go america..
everything is big in texas…
thank god these fcuking ants aint!
just another sign of the apocalypse
Moo!