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#Fire ants are heading north as climate warms, researchers say

#Fire ants are heading north as climate warms, researchers say

July 7, 2020 | 10:32am | Updated July 7, 2020 | 10:46am

Fire ants are hitching free rides on agricultural deliveries and are headed north, where experts say they will deliver their painful bites on unsuspecting victims.

The stinging insects were accidentally brought into a port in Alabama from South America in the 1930s and have expanded across the South since, according to a report by AccuWeather.

“They release a venom into the skin,” said Dr. Meghna Nagabhushan, an emergency medicine physician based in Fort Worth, Texas.

Researchers believe the pesky critters are now moving north and are establishing colonies in cold environments.

“We’re kind of shocked,” said Robert Warren, an associate professor of biology at Buffalo State College, who co-authored a recent paper on the infiltrating ants.

“As you go up the mountains in the southern Appalachians, they are showing higher and high tolerance for cold temperature,” Warren said. “So they are absolutely adjusting physiologically to these colder temperatures.”

The experts also believe that a warming climate with fewer bitter cold nights allows the ants to survive in areas they had not been seen previously, according to the report.

“You gotta respect fire ants. They can send you to the hospital,” Warren said.

Nagabhushan said the painful bites can be treated with Benadryl and over-the-counter pain meds, as well as ice.

But if the victim has trouble breathing from a bite, it is time to see a doctor.

“It’s hard to kill a colony of fire ants,” Warren said, according to phys.org, noting that their sting is like that of a honeybee. “If you get into it, they swarm in the hundreds and sting. It feels like you’re on fire. The name fits.”

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