Among ants, here is an especially serious one that has been spreading. The little fire ant is on the list of the world’s top 100 nastiest invasive pest species. It is in southern Florida, has been spreading in Hawaii, at times has been battled in California and Texas, and is on world-wide watch lists.
This ant is smaller than the red imported fire ant, but it has a really painful bite, and can cause an extremely itchy rash. The bite is so painful relative to the size of the ant, that some people call it the electric ant.
One of the nastiest things about these ants is that they like spending time up in trees, and when the wind blows, the ants are blown down—often onto people or animals, which the ants then sting. They have been known to sting the eyes of pets, causing them to go blind. In some areas the problem has become so serious that crops can’t be harvested. And they become so numerous and eat so many insects and small creatures, good and bad, that these little ants can change an entire ecosystem.