Crazy Ant Invasion

Crazy ants are the one of the newest things to invade the North.  These ants invade houses, crawl up pant legs, and short out power lines making them very annoying to humans. These ants are very close to the red ant species however they do not sting like the red ant does. The thing that makes these crazy ants survive over the red ants is the fact the they contain their own venom that counteracts that of the red ants. these are one of the first species discovered that can counteract another species venom in this way. This has been throughly tested by Dr. LeBrun to show that the crazy ants contain a venom in their abdomen that they cover themselves in after being stung by a red ant. Due to this ability the crazy ant is replacing the fire ant every where it goes however the crazy ant colony will only split when it is too big for a single colony. These ants have not yet made it to Minnesota and shouldn't for a while because of their slow moving rate and the great distance from the South where they inhabit to the North where we live.

NOS:

• Science is based on evidence (they experimented on the ants to prove that they had a anti-venom)
• Science Cannot Provide Complete Answers to All Questions (scientists could not describe how the crazy ant venom worked)

• Scientific knowledge is tentative (the ants have not been discovered until recently changing our knowledge of the ecosystem)

-Tyler Welder

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/science/a-crazy-ant-invader-uses-acid-to-its-advantage.html?smid=tw-nytimesscience&seid=auto&_r=1

Crazy Ant:

Red Ant: