The trouble with ants…
joanne said:
Doesn’t matter how well you ant-proof your living space one year, they’re back with vengeance a year or two later. Not always the same species - our neck of the woods is battling invading fire ants right now (as well as various bee hive pests determined to decimate our honey industry). Seems we’re always going to lose this seasonal home invasion.
Just stumbled upon this startling science news item alerting me to the latest in Ant Wars:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-09-21/ants-humans-population-comparison-study/101461050
Fire ants were introduced to the Western Hemisphere in the 1950's. They crossed the Rio Grand into the U.S. in the 60's. I remember reading about them in Reader's Digest. So far, they are only in the southern U.S. but global warming will facilitate their habitat to New Jersey.
Meanwhile, we are dealing with Emerald Ash Borers and Spotted Lantern Flies.
On the other hand, Monarch butterfly population continues to dwindle, due to loss of habitat.
We’re losing koalas - yep, critically endangered now, thanks to fires and droughts. And many of our oldest trees, older than your truly impressive tall pines and sequoias, our Wollemi pines are dying off too.
But these ant studies show there are 2.5 million ants for every human on the planet. That’s gotta make ya think 
I stumbled upon a fire ants nest in Florida once. Thanks to the Lowes nearby, I killed the entire nest with a bag of pesticide specially formulated to kill fire ants. Literally millions of ants were permanently eradicated that day. These critters can kill an outdoor cat. Hell, they kill humans too.
And now I read that termites are more active, thanks to global warming
Doesn’t matter how well you ant-proof your living space one year, they’re back with vengeance a year or two later. Not always the same species - our neck of the woods is battling invading fire ants right now (as well as various bee hive pests determined to decimate our honey industry). Seems we’re always going to lose this seasonal home invasion.
Just stumbled upon this startling science news item alerting me to the latest in Ant Wars:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-09-21/ants-humans-population-comparison-study/101461050