The imported fire ant is a notorious plague in the southern United States, as anyone from Texas can attest. The imported fire ant, Solenopsis wagneri or Solenipsis invicta, came to the US on a boat from South America in the early 1900s. It has since spread like wildfire through all the southern states, as far west as California, and as far north as Tennessee. These evil little red bastards have a sting far more powerful than their size would indicate, and swarm over their prey like army ants. They regular kill livestock, wild animals, and occasionally, people (generally the elderly). They are thought to be responsible for the near/probable extinction of native species such as the Texas Horned Toad or Horned Frog. They are ubiquitous in Texas, picnics are impossible anywhere that has not been treated with insecticide in advance. They also have a strange affinity for electric fields, and regularly short out transformers and air conditioners. They have no natural predators in the United States, though research is being done into indroducing their natural predator from South America, the Phorid Fly. Those of you living in the north will never be afflicted with them, they cannot survive cold winters.