There is something wrong down at the Texas ranch of Dan Simonis. He went out to start his day and noticed the proverbial Texas Fire Ants were aimlessly walking on the hot sand. Usually, they are in scout mode finding food for the queen, but these guys were waltzing across his acres, totally oblivious.
The scene was disturbing, Dan wondered if his water table had gotten polluted, or if there were some chemical problem. Then he totally had a cow when he started seeing their heads falling off...yet still walking.
Two weeks went by and he kept seeing headless ants walking in circles. "What in Sam Hill is goin on?" Dan asked himself. He went to his next door neighbor to see if he had the same problem. Coming to the door was Rob Plowes, a research associate at UT. Dan related his story, while Rob just nodded and smiled, annoying Dan to no end.
After Dan had finished, Rob invited him to his barn, which acted as a home office/laboratory. There inside were tubes of tiny flies; Rob called them "phorid" flies. " He continued:
"The flies "dive-bombed" the fire ants and laid thier eggs.
The maggot eventually migrates into the ant's head; leaving the ant with no brain, then wanders aimlessly. This wandering stage goes on for about two weeks.
About a month after the egg is laid, the ant's head falls off and the fly emerges ready to attack any foraging ants away from the mound and lay eggs."
The hair on the back of Dan's head is now standing on end, and he carefully asked why Rob was doing this.
"It's a hobby" he replied. Dan's blood ran cold.
Like the scene from "The Shining", where Wendy finally got a look at what Jack had been writing about (all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy), Dan quietly thanked Rob for the explanation and walked as fast as he could to the pick-up, making like a bandit back to the safety of his ranch.
That's why in Texas, good barbed wire fences make good neighbors...maybe even razor wire...
