Just had to call the ATM extension office. Our yard is infested with these things. Found one in the house last summer but couldn't figure out what it was at that time...and now I know. Baaaad.

http://urbanentomology.tamu.ed...

That is a nightmare scenario right there! I wonder if things like this will ever make us wish for the "good old days" when fireants were our biggest problem.

They are also taking over my veggie beds. I can spray the house and treat the nests as I find them...but not in organic beds. Yuck!

Thankfully(?) I have found a few fire ant mounds in the backyard so they haven't taken over the whole property yet. Interestingly, the Statesman just had a story about a research scientist at UT who is just starting a study on these buggers.

They sound horrible. So sorry.

Terrible! I probably wouldn't recognize them if I saw them, even after looking at the info. I had heard about them sometime...a year or two ago, but at that time they were mostly in SE Texas!

I heard back from TAMU. I'll be sending them some 'samples' in alcohol. With all the rain, it washed out the previous nests so I'm waiting on them to re-gather.