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Tiny wasps show some success in fight to save Christmas Island's red crabs from crazy ants
| Their deaths are unpleasant: first the ants spray acid into the crabs' eyes to blind them, and then into their joints to immobilise them.
Authorities feared that without intervention, the crabs would face extinction in the wild, a fate already shared by other island species like the blue-tailed skink.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-16/wasps-enlisted-to-control-crazy-ants-on-christmas-island/10666868
| i wanna know where the fuck that ship came from bringing acid-spraying ants
| >>527778 Ants have been boarding onto ships for many centuries now. That's why certain invasive species of ants can be seen all over the world now.
| Ants are the problem; the atomic bomb is the answer.
| LONG LIVE THE ANT EMPIRE TINY SOLDIERS UNITE FOR THE QUEEN!
\○ °○/
| ¤^¤ crabs need love too
| The ants know that to kill the giant enemy crab, you have to attack its weak point for massive damage.
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| It is believed crazy ants were first introduced to the island in the early 20th century by a visiting ship.
But their rapid explosion into destructive supercolonies 30 years ago — for reasons scientists do not fully understand — triggered a decline in red crabs.
Crabs wandering through a supercolony of ants during the migration are quickly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the insects.