The Threat Below

Evan Gassman / July 02, 2009

The BBC reported yesterday that during our Fourth of July celebrations, there is an international security risk we should keep in the back of our minds.

The Iranian threat? No. The North Koreans? Not exactly. The international security threat just discovered: Ants.

A super aggressive ant, the Argentine ant, was formerly believed to be hostile to other ants – however, this is not the case. The Argentine ants from the three largest super colonies are friendly toward each other, leaving scientists to believe they are genetically related. And we humans were the ones that transported them all over the world. The Argentine Ant is known to often invade Southern California homes in the thousands. They’re even blamed for spreading weeds. (more…)