An article by the AP suggests that Texas border controls did not prevent a new ant from arriving by cargo ship. Now the Raspberry Ant (named after one of the first American exterminators to battle them) is showing an amazing resilience and a taste for electronics:

They have ruined pumps at sewage pumping stations, fouled computers and at least one homeowner’s gas meter, and caused fire alarms to malfunction. They have been spotted at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and close to Hobby Airport, though they haven’t caused any major problems there yet.

Exterminators say calls from frustrated homeowners and businesses are increasing because the ants – which are starting to emerge by the billions with the onset of the warm, humid season – appear to be resistant to over-the-counter ant killers.

“The population built up so high that typical ant controls simply did no good,” said Jason Meyers, an A&M doctoral student who is writing his dissertation on the one-eighth-inch-long ant.

It’s not enough just to kill the queen. Experts say each colony has multiple queens that have to be taken out.

At the same time, the ants aren’t taking the bait usually left out in traps, according to exterminators, who want the Environmental Protection Agency to loosen restrictions on the use of more powerful pesticides.

And when you do kill these ants, the survivors turn it to their advantage: They pile up the dead, sometimes using them as a bridge to cross safely over surfaces treated with pesticide.

One would think this natural evasion to chemicals might make people think twice before unleashing more pesticide, but I guess we will see. The EPA, Texas Department of Agriculture and A&M entomologists are apparently researching solutions. Perhaps the Bush administration instead should fly in and just declare “mission accomplished”.