re: #29 Brother Holy Cruise Missile of Mild Acceptance

I am guessing Argentine Ants. There’s no stopping them just trying to keep them out. We have a barrier of spray around the house and they still manage to find a way in.

What’s worse, when we came back from El Salvador we discovered our backyard had become infested with Fire ants. They were far easier to deal with though.

This is what Florida did about Fire Ants:

In South America, female phorid flies have developed a bizarre reproductive strategy: They hover over fire ants (pictured in a file photo), then inject their eggs into the ants with a needle-like appendage.

The egg grows and the resulting larva generally migrates to the ant’s head. The larva lives there for weeks—slurping up the brain and turning the ant into a “zombie,” in some cases compelling the ant to march 55 yards (50 meters) away from its colony to avoid attack by other fire ants.

Finally, the baby fly decapitates its host and hatches, exiting through the ant’s head, as shown in the pictures in this gallery.

news.nationalgeographic.com