Computer Eater Ants Attack NASA

A new type of ant eating computer equipment is terrorizing Texas. Their origin is unknown, but it is assumed that they came from Colombia or the countries of the Caribbean, where the “mad ants” similar to them live, reports the Associated Press .

The new species is called "rabid ants Rasberry" in honor of the entomologist Tom Rasberry, one of the main fighters with them. The victims of these ants are computers, pumping stations, air conditioners and alarm systems. By damaging the insulation, the ants cause short circuits in the equipment. In one case, even the chemical plant suffered - the ants cut down three computers that controlled the supply of chemicals through pipes.

Hungry electronics eaters have already reached the Houston airport and the NASA space center, where Tom Rasberry was called about a month ago. Too late - according to the ant terminator, three colonies of IT ants already live in NASA. And the season of active feeding they have just begun and will reach a peak in the summer.

“They can destroy the NASA center if computers like this are used here. I have been fighting insects for 32 years, but I have never seen anything like it. You can collect entomologists from all the states and see what they will be shocked at, ”Rasberry said in an interview with ComputerWorld.
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At the moment, scientists can not answer the question of what attracts ants in electronics. A study at the University of Texas showed that they prefer direct current to alternating current - but the reasons are unknown.

Classical methods of struggle, such as poisoned baits, do not help against these new ants. Moreover, these ants use the corpses of their poisoned counterparts for their own benefit - they build bridges of them to cross the territory poisoned by pesticides.

“Even the Russians are concerned,” a spokesman for the mayor of Houston said in an interview with the Houston Journal. - We received a call from Moscow asking if everything was all right with the security of the NASA center. I assured the Russians that the situation was under control. ”

And the Russians, by the way, have warned about this for a long time! “True, I used to bet on termites in my predictions,” commented the editor-in-chief of Vebplaneta, Alexey Andreev, author of the futuristic novel Web. In the 10-year-old novel, there is a story about how the data center of one of the providers was attacked by an unknown nature, as a result of which communication equipment and most of the memory devices were damaged. Here’s what the subsequent discussion of this attack sounds like:
“- And what was it? - I asked.

- How do I know? - in a cunning voice cooed Marian. - Probably termites.

- Termites? In Moscow?! It's cold there too!

“Oh, I didn’t know that I was talking to the chief termite professor.” Now he will say that for dinner, termites do not eat vinyl, fiber and ferroplastic. Especially radio controlled termites.

- No, no ... (and what do I know about termites, really? What do they eat?) ... But wait, but where did they go then?

- Here is the brake! He himself said: it is cold in Moscow. Frozen, probably. Or fled.

So, electromagnetic impulses were there all the same. But they did not erase the memory, but controlled the termites! I was having fun. I imagined how swarms of insects seep into the office of the HALLAN - through the smallest gaps, bypassing all the security systems. Small bugs pounce on office equipment and get away from the cooling, de-energized building. ”

A source

PS: Commentators are discussing whether our nanotechnologies didn’t make our ants eat American computers? This is for the Colorado beetles :-)