If it is, it must be very, very bad of me to want to see a video of the fire ant raft being sprayed with lighter fluid and set ablaze.
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I expect you’re right, I have no business reading this. I can’t wait 'til I can sit down with it later. 
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With some of the chemicals, petroleum also often found in floodwater, I wouldn’t if I were you…
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Rub dish soap all over yourself before getting near them? 
At least rub it on your watercraft just above the waterline.
I figure you might want to modify a super soaker to deal with the higher viscosity of dish soap. But again, do you need straight dish soap, or can you dilute it (yeah, it’ll dilute when it hits the water) to better work with a spray nozzle?
I’m also assuming these flotillas don’t really form tendrils, but try to stay in a bigger clump that’s easier to avoid.
Other experiments: What happens if you drop a basketball/log in the middle of them? Will they swarm on top of it and integrate it into their flotilla? What if it’s covered in soap? Will they keep a set distance away? What about something that’s neutrally buoyant?
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Book your vacation now to Fire Ant Island.
Mr. Roarke will be waiting.
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I find it amazing that Mr Wild who studies insects in Texas doesn’t know about fire ant rafts. Maybe he studies beetles or something but it reflects badly on their program that he doesn’t know what every person who has lived in Texas during a flood knows about.
Reminds me of this supercool movie:
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Fill every available firefighting aircraft with Palmolive and just keep dropping it on the site until everything between the Rio Grande and the Mississippi is covered in a thick layer of suds.
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Friday, in this case. 
Photographer here. Great responses to the evil fire ants. When my family moved to Houston in the 60’s from Los Angeles (NASA transfer), we had no idea about these little Brazilian imports. My first sting felt like being branded. Immediately, hard red welts popped up which after a while formed pustules. After a few more stings, your body adjusts and they just become annoying. I never tried the Dawn technique, but entertained myself with gasoline and a match. Those mounds soak up a surprising amount of gas.
You could do fun stuff like that back in the 60’s and 70’s. Try that now, and you’ll have a record. Pro tip: firecrackers blast the little buggers into a satisfying cloud, but doesn’t always kill them. Found that out while I was ripping my shirt off to scrape them away.
One of the many enjoyments about living in Texas.
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I suspect that Mr. Wild is familiar with fire ants, and is commenting on the fact that he has never seen the kind/scope of rafting in the picture.
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Mixing with the odd petrochemicals in the water produces a strange reaction for the ants
It also makes them surprisingly affectionate towards has been celebrities
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Boy, I bet that stinks!
Cruel irony is I was born in Texas and still live here and I’m allergic to them. For better or worse, I’m also a right stubborn.
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Walter Tschinkel’s The Fire Ants is one of the finest books on biology and entomology out there. They’re pretty evil to encounter, but they lead fascinating lives. There’s a supercolony right near Athens, GA but I believe the mutation which allows it is not widespread outside of that place. Most fire ant colonies are standard eusocial organisms with a single queen genetically different from other colonies. Fun Fact: the queen is particular about heat and humidity, so when the nests are built up high on hot summer days she’s usually in the upper part of the nest. Boiling water is the cheapest and safest treatment for nests you wish to destroy.
When we were kids we’d use Zippo lighter fluid. The nozzle was perfectly shaped…
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I just knew it’d be that one. Great story.
that was wayy bigger than I thought it would be.
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