Carnivorous Ants In Haiti?

[Lambada]

No, I'm not being flippant. This is what it says in English
Ants Invade Haiti - Prensa Latina

and Spanish
El Nacional, la voz de todos

Is anyone knowledgeable about these creatures? Like............how far can they walk? Farming in the DR has enough problems right now without animals being attacked by ants.................

[elton]

i was asking if there was a picture ...but ive just seen it

[Keith R]

Elton many (too many!) ants in the DR bite (something I learned the hard way during my years in Santo Domingo). But not like this! I'd also like to find out more about the creatures, and the risk, if any, that they might eventually cross the island...

[elton]

perhaps we need a line of chalk along the border - do these things also fly

[Keith R]

here's what they look like (assuming that Prensa Latina had the right scientific name):
Discover Life - Formicidae: Paratrechina longicornis Latreille, 1802

BTW, their nickname is evidently "crazy ant"

[Lambada]

Originally Posted by elton

perhaps we need a line of chalk along the border - do these things also fly

Not so silly as it sounds. We use Chinese chalk on our common or garden Dominican ants and they won't cross a line drawn on the tiles. So.........maybe a wall of chalk at the border (until some entrepreneur notices it is white & powdery and attempts to set up a punto ).
Seriously, Keith R, with forward planning being what it is here & knowing that Haiti allegedly reported this over a year ago, I'm a little surprised not to have seen anything by the Agriculture Ministry in the papers before now. At least to throw the blame elsewhere in standard fashion. But I read the papers regularly & until today I have seen nothing.

[Keith R]

Nor have I. Ginni. But I'm wondering how accurate the Prensa Latina report is -- from what I'm finding so far online, these ants are annoying but nowhere am I finding that they have "mutated" and attack cattle and poultry. Maybe rumor reported by Haitian farmers and faithfully repeated by the press?

[A.Hidalgo]

According to the following the description of the feeding and foraging of the ants is not as savage as the Prensa Libre article states.....of course I'm no scientist and maybe it has mutated to prefer items as large as a beef stake.

Foragers are opportunists (Andersen 1992). They feed on live and dead insects, honeydew, fruits, and many household foods (Smith 1965). Honeydew is obtained by tending plant lice, mealy bugs, and scales (Smith 1965; Farnsworth 1993). These ants are especially fond of sweet food sources (Smith 1965). Foragers will also collect seeds (Smith 1965). Large prey items, as large as a lizard, are carried by a highly concerted group action (Trager 1984)

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Invasive anst - Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille)

[Ezequiel]

Originally Posted by Lambada

No, I'm not being flippant. This is what it says in English
Ants Invade Haiti - Prensa Latina

and Spanish
El Nacional, la voz de todos

Is anyone knowledgeable about these creatures? Like............how far can they walk? Farming in the DR has enough problems right now without animals being attacked by ants.................

Holy guacamole! how does ants got to Haiti? poor Haitians have enough with bad news already to add those Ants it's like a Fuku.

[GringoCArlos]

I was going to suggest that maybe someone could transplant a few into the DR huacales to help reduce the government's budget expenditures, but reading the citations, it says they favor protein in the summer, and there aren't many botellas in the office in the summer here, are there? jajaja