An invasive ant is crawling its way across the country and is now found in 20 states.
Be careful if you see them. The ants can cause a potentially deadly reaction for some people when they’re stung.
The Asian needle ants are tiny. They’re so small you may not notice them until you are stung, USA Today reported.
They measure only about a quarter inch long, and, according to ABC News, may be able to sting through clothing.
The North Carolina State Extension Office said they are smaller than a carpenter or wood ant, but larger than “sugar ants.”
Sometimes you’ll get stung when gardening or moving wood, the newspaper said.
“They’re pretty widespread on the East Coast,” University of Georgia urban entomology professor Daniel Suiter told the newspaper. “If you live in an area which is dominated by hardwood trees, there’s a good chance there are Asian needle ants underfoot.”
The ants, which are named Brachyponera chinensis, or the rough translation of “short, wicked ant from China” or “short constricted ants from China,’ are native to Japan, North Korea, South Korea and China.
They were first found in Decatur, Georgia, in 1932 but have spread across the east, as far north as Connecticut, and as south as Florida. They have also been found in Wisconsin and Washington.
After years of going under the radar, the U.S. Forest Service said the ants recently started to “cause problems” across the country, according to a report the agency released in 2021.
Antmaps.org is tracking the critters.
They are carnivorous, eating flies, beetles, grasshoppers and termites, and because of that, they don’t use scent trails, making it difficult to find and wipe out colonies, which are frequently made in leaf piles, firewood, rotting logs and mulch, USA Today reported.
The North Carolina State Extension Office said the ant can live in “both disturbed and ‘natural areas’ like forests. This ant has been found in various settings from school cafeterias to residential lawns to logs in State and National Parks.”
One good thing is they don’t swarm like fire ants and are not aggressive. Experts, however, suggest wearing gloves when gardening and paying attention to what you’re picking up.
If you are stung by an Asian needle ant, the pain hurts at first, disappears and then comes back, a process that can repeat itself.
“The first, initial pain lasted a few seconds. Then about five minutes later, when the pain had eased, I felt ‘ouch!’ as if somebody had stung me again in the same place. The pain continues to reoccur in the same place, it disappears and then comes back,” Benoit Guénard, a professor of ecology and entomology at the University of Hong Kong, said.
Guénard said it lasted about two hours, but for others, it can last for two days.
It can also cause an allergic reaction in about 1% of those stung, which could result in anaphylactic shock, which could be deadly.
Suiter told CBS News that if you have a bad reaction to a bee or ant sting, you may experience anaphylaxis from an Asian needle ant sting.
“If you suffer from anaphylaxis, you should really know what this ant looks like,” Suiter suggested. “And it might be smart to carry an EpiPen.
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