The 'crazy hairy ants' invading america

THE VIDEO: "It sounds like a horror movie," says Janet McConnaughy at the Associated Press. _ __ _Hordes of super-fast, flea-sized ants with a nasty bite are swarming the U.S.

South, from Texas to Florida. (Watch a news report below.) These so-called "crazy hairy ants" are probably native to South America, and their victims in the U.S. so far include

everything from industrial plants — the ants can short out heavy equipment — to beehives. They travel in "cargo containers, hay bales, potted plants, motorcycles, and moving vans"

— and there are now millions in the U.S. These ants are also quite hard to kill, and even if one dies, it often releases a chemical that calls in an attack from the whole colony. THE

REACTION: These terrifying little critters are a "billion times worse" than those house ants you find so annoying, says Lindsay Mannering at _The Stir_. In fact, with Halloween

coming up, this almost sounds like a giant put-on: "What could be scarier than an ever-expanding army of ants that move at incredible speeds and that multiply if you try to kill

them?" The "million-dollar question" is why they're marching north to the U.S., says Brian Merchant at _TreeHugger_. The answer is almost surely climate change. And as

tropical weather creeps northward, "it shouldn't be much of a surprise if more and more northern states start seeing visits from the frantic little buggers." Here's what

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