Electric Ants
Just when you thought that you had heard it all there comes something really new, like Electric Ants. Well, the ants are not really electric, but they are claimed to love devices that are, like your computer, smart phone, keep-your veggies-fresh-fridge, modern power grids and other great inventions using electricity. 
A species of Fire ants is said to have settled in the UK with unknown consequences. One nest with 35,000 of the little critters has been found at one location but the “National Trust now says that the super ants might be planning a full-fledged invasion across Britain and have spread across the south of England.”
Irresistible Electricity
What’s really news is the claim that “experts say these ants find electricity irresistible and are therefore a serious threat to electricity cables.”
Electric power is one of the most wonderful inventions made by mankind. For many people, life without any electric device has become just about unimaginable. When you start your (gasoline or diesel) car engine, an electric battery provides the energy to do so. When you use a mobile phone you rely on the electric power stored in its built-in battery as well. High-voltage cables are running across every land- and cityscape to deliver the energy required for light, heating, cooling, cooking and other applications. But electricity is also known to occur in nature.
“Natural Electricity”
“Electric storms” with lighting strikes across the sky, hitting buildings, trees and, sometimes hapless golfers are common place. Even in winter when clouds consist of snow and ice rather than water droplets the friction between clouds can produce thunderstorms, but nature’s repertoire of electricity spreads further than that.
For example, the source of energy making life on Earth possible at all, the Sun, routinely sends out large electro-magnetic storms that can cause havoc to our electric infrastructure. Such storms can bring down the entire grid as happened some years ago in the Province of Quebec. A similar storm recently just missed hitting our planet; experts say it would have caused major mayhem around the world if we had not escaped its path by sheer luck but there is even more natural electricity around, for example, in electric eels.
Electric Eels
Electric eels are fish widely found in the Amazon River basin and other South American water bodies. They have poor eye sight and find their way, prey, and mates by sending out frequent electric pulses and “listening” to the echo with sensory organs tuned to receiving such. To stun their prey or for defense they can turn up the voltage to about 600+ V. If you have ever got a shock from your 120 or 240 V appliance, you’ll know what 600 V can mean to your well-being. Especially if you happen to be well-grounded at the time it’s pretty much the end of you, but there is yet more to nature’s interest in electric things, like the low level electro-magnetic waves emanating from electric currents in various cables, such as submarine cables.
Submarine Cables
Submarine cables for communication, power transmission, and reconnaissance are found in many parts of the world. For example, just looking at the number of those systems in the Caribbean may astound you. Simply search Google for ‘submarine cables’ and you’ll get hundreds of pictures, some with great detail on what is out there. The bottom of the Caribbean alone has dozens of such submarine cables – and they had their problems with shark bites. Somehow, sharks appear to have a fondness for biting into such cables, perhaps thinking that they are among those new, government-encouraged low-carb foods.
Whatever the sharks may have thought, the cables didn’t like it; but I am straying off the topic, i.e. the ants.
Harvester Ants
Among the many ant species known some appear to be more vicious than others and, generally, none is liked, period, but there also appear to be exceptions, like with the“ant rustlers” of old times (I take no responsibility for the veracity of that report). Others claim that “ant orgies” were a common part of indigenous cultures in California.
Wiki says that Harvester ants of the genus Pogonomyrmex are often mistaken for Fire ants that belong to the genus Solenopsis. Let me assure you, I am neither an entomologist nor trying to convert you to one and am just trying to find out what exactly caused my itchy spots. Ants, spiders, wasps, mosquitos and other biting or stinging insects are known to cause such to people all over the world.
Fire ants in particular are among the critters that deserve particular attention, not just because some may have started to like your smart phone inners. In some parts of the world they have been used to meet out cruel punishment to offenders.
Fire ants
Some Fire ant varieties are native to this continent; others are invasive species from South America that arrived in the 20th century. For example, the “red imported fire ant” (Solenopsis invicta) became a problem to rural Texas in the mid-1900’s and the U.S.FDA estimates that “more than US$5 billion is spent annually on medical treatment, damage, and control.” They are said to be far more aggressive than most ant species and their bites cause uncomfortable pustules and so on.
The Fire ants sudden liking of things electric is something different altogether. If it is confirmed to be real, you may need to find some additional safeguards for your e-device(s) other than stand-by anti-virus apps.
Dr. Klaus L.E. Kaiser is author of CONVENIENT MYTHS, the green revolution – perceptions, politics, and factts. convenientmyths.com Dr. Kaiser can be reached at:[email protected]
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