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Benoit Guenard / North Carolina State University
An Asian needle ant stings a termite in this photo from North Carolina State University. The invasive species are displacing invasive Argentine ants.
A stinging ant from Asia is spreading with a vengeance across the United States and may prove more devastating to people and the environment than the well-established aggressive Argentine ant currently is, according to new research.
"While Argentine ants cause a lot of damage, Asian needle ants are a really big health threat to humans," Eleanor Spicer-Rice, an entomologist at North Carolina State University, told NBC News.
The invaders from Asia pack a venomous sting that can cause an allergic reaction in some people. Spicer-Rice said the sting produces small welts that get surrounded by a rash. It itches and hurts when scratched.
"It is one of those aggravating bites," she said.
In North Carolina, people routinely go to the hospital with severe allergic reactions "because they are reaching into a woodpile and getting stung by Asian needle ants and they don’t know what it is and what is happening to them. They don’t realize the Asian needle ants are here," Spicer-Rice noted.
Spread of the needle
Historic records indicate the ants were in the U.S. as early as the 1920s, but for reasons that are not yet clear, their population has exploded in the past 8 years and they are spreading across the country, Spicer-Rice said.
She first took note of the Asian needle ants in 2008 while studying a supercolony of Argentine ants in Raleigh. This was unusual. Argentine ants are typically aggressive to other ant species and push them out of their territory. She started to investigate.
Between 2008 and 2011, she found that Argentine ant populations dropped from a presence in 99 percent of the sites within her study area to 67 percent, while the Asian needle ants expanded from 9 percent to 32 percent. Both ants overlap in about 15 of the sites.
Why? It appears that the Asian needle ants are able to tolerate cooler temperatures better than the Argentine ants, Spicer-Rice and colleagues report in a paper published online Feb. 8 in the journal PLoS One.
All ants essentially hibernate when wintertime hits, but the Asian needle ants "wake up before other ant species wake up," Spicer-Rice explained.
This head start allows them to build nests, find sources of food, and start reproducing before the other ants get going. This displaces Argentine ants in urban environments as well as native ants in forested areas.
Ant eats ant?
Other behavioral traits may also play to the Asian needle ant’s advantage. For example, the Asian needle ants eat other ants.
"While the Argentine ants aren’t bothering the Asian needle ants for one reason or another, the Asian needle ants may be eating the Argentine ants," said Spicer-Rice, who is preparing a paper on the behavior of the ants for publication.
For now, she said people need to learn what Asian needle ants are and that they may be in their yards. Her research shows that toxic baits are effective at killing the Asian needle ants. If widely used, it could slow their spread.
And spreading the ants are. Spicer-Rice works on a citizen-science project called School of Ants where people send in ants collected in their backyards to North Carolina State University for identification. Today, "Asian needle ants are the most common ants found," she said. "Five years ago, nobody even knew what an Asian needle ant was."
John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, check out his website.
Leave a Comment:
Survival of the fittest, baby.
But all the alarmists have been telling us it is getting hotter and that winters aren't as cold anymore, and that spring comes earlier and that fall comes later, and, and, and, etc...
Now go back to the article and read the three sentences that follow the one you copied and pasted. Get over your denier self. This has nothing to do with climate change.
You know, as soon as I read that part of the article about the ant's tolerating cooler weather better, I knew some fool would start an anti-warming rant. I see I was right, and as usual, "economykiller" only read the parts of the story that fit his logic.
Daveyboi... The same could be said about your nauseating response.... Such a dullard... The truth is, nobody really cares one way or the other... That is, aside from the zeallot like partisans who have made their pathetic revival-like politics their new religion. It really is getting very old and 97.5% of people who find themselves within earshot of the posturing roll their eyes and try to get away from your kind as quickly as possible. You might notice it if you were not so self absorbed in trying to make your pathetic attempt at being noticed for your "views". Hey dork...
Well, if it said warmer the title of this article would be blaming Global Warming no doubt.
stick to commenting about the thieves in Wall Street you work for, let the scientists do their job, 90% are saying that there is such a thing as global climate change and what causes it..... the other 10% are owned by your boss.
...but wait - the ozone hole is the smallest in 10 years!! How can that be since the scientists know so much? Please...climate change cannot be stated as fact...the data we have is for such a short period of time and the world has been doing its thing for millions...get a life.
EconomyKiller - actually, that's what you and your ilk have been saying all along to oversimplify the issue. No one on the opposite side of you has ever argued that everything will just be hotter all the time, but people on your side have made that the argument just so you can point at it and say how untrue it seems to be.
Actually, you yourself admitted it can be stated as a fact since it has been occuring in the world since the beginning of time! The real question is whether or not human beings are accelerating the process.
Just get a few chickens, let them free range in your yard a few hours a day, no more ants, termites,ticks etc...
Having once kept chickens, I know they are good at getting rid of ticks, because questing ticks climb to the top of the grass and are easy pickings. However, chickens don't eat at night and cannot rip into wood to get termites. Plus, the birds leave their own mess where ever they go.
Yuk.
It's biological warfare by China, N Korea, and Iran.
Declare the ants terrorists and modify our drone fleet to spray the US with an insecticide that will kill only the ants (and any other animals unlucky enough to live near them) while having only a minor impact (won't affect rich people) on humans!
If we bring in Argentinian Anteaters will they ignore the Asian ants? Are there any Asian Anteaters?
Human versions of the needle ants have invaded the Republican Party. They are being referred to as members of the Tea Party and their toxic minds seem unlikely to respond to pesticides.
What I'd really like to see in articles like this is a map.
What's the range of this species now?
Are there other related invasive species?
How does this species stack up against the fire ant, another very unwelcome invader?
Not every invasion is related to global warming; this ant's key advantage would appear to be "early to rise"- after the long dark night of a winter in hibernation.
To certain of the posters above: if you want evidence of global warming, look at plants, not ants.
I took a picture this year of a plum blossom which had been battered by hail- on December 27th, on the Central Coast of California.
I've never in my life seen one so early.
Things are changing.
Those with the background required to follow the science understand why- those cozened by cynics or mired in superstition (or compensated by oil companies) will tell you otherwise.
Why argue with them?
They had access to the facts, and they found them unacceptable.
I agree. Where is the map? Maybe something similar to the Burmese Python map.
My almond trees and peach trees blossomed early for the past couple of years and didn't produce anything. I'll hope for better results this year. The cherry trees did very well though.
One must sleep in order to dream.
These Asian stinging ants will not be a problem in the Deep South. Billions of our ubiquitous, vicious fire-ants are sure to attack the invaders (YAY!). Or, alternately, the new invading stinging-ants will destroy our fire-ants (YAY!). Either way, this is a win-win for the Deep South...I guaranteee!
I love that John Roach wrote an article about ants!
FeO2 - Excellent post. I always hope to see such insights when I frequent the boards, but rarely do. Unfortunately, this article will give extremists on one side to blame climate change for yet something else, and conversely, it will also give the extremists on the other side another case on which to bark down the claims of climate change. As you indicate, climate change is undeniable at this point, but blaming it for every occurence is a mindless oversimplification of science.