Evil Ant Invasion!

It sounds like something out of a bad horror movie. Swarms of imported red fire antsBrazilian insects with scarlet armor and a burning stinghave run rampant in parts of the United States, Australia and Taiwan, consuming small birds, felling livestock, and leaving painful welts on any human skin they contact. Its Latin species name, invicta, means invincible, and so far no affected country has managed to eradicate an infestation of the 2- to 6-mm-long ant. "I hate them," says Keith McCubbin, director of the Queensland Fire Ant Control Centre, which is spending $136 million on a six-year campaign to rid Australia...