# Ant Balls in New Orleans
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 1, 2005, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579 "2005-09-01T13:38:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579/1 "2005-09-01T13:38:16Z")
Very weird stuff coming out of New Orleans:
> [@](#):
>
> Ant balls not an urban myth
>
> In addition to all of the other horrors befalling New Orleanians during the flood was the creepy discovery that red ants form themselves into floating clusters to avoid drowning. As Dante Ramos and I paddled along Carrollton Avenue on Wednesday, I saw two glittering, golf ball-sized masses of ants floating beside our canoe.
>
> - Doug MacCash
[http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola\_Times-Picayune/archives/2005\_08.html#075568](http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_08.html#075568)
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### Author:  [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579/2 "2005-09-01T13:46:15Z")
Ok.
I could live with out that visual.
Floating Fire Ants in a flood.
Is this reality or some 50’s B Movie Schlock fest?
Tom Servo, is that you?
/fire ants scare the bezeebies out of me.
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### Author:  [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579/3 "2005-09-01T13:47:35Z")
Imagine how small the jock straps must be…
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### Author:  [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579/4 "2005-09-01T13:50:24Z")
If this was the first time Mr. MacCash had seen this phenomenon, I suppose it would have been his debut - ant ball, which are common in New Orleans.
I have the utmost sympathy for Katrina’s victims. But the bad pun was obscuring everything else in my field of vision. No offense intended.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579/5 "2005-09-01T15:14:09Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#):
>
> I could live with out that visual.
[No](http://static.flickr.com/1/721128_ae40ff9063_m.jpg) [you](http://www.cnn.com/WEATHER/9810/23/texas.floods.03/fire.ants.jpg) [can’t.](http://claycoleman.tripod.com/4c3bcd30.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579/6 "2005-09-01T15:15:04Z")
Oh…_those_ ant balls.
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579/7 "2005-09-01T15:17:15Z")
Seriously, that’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen. Well maybe not THE damnedest…but it’s up there.
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### Author:  [@Tupug\_Anachi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tupug_Anachi)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579/8 "2005-09-01T15:33:57Z")
Not something you want to wade through, I suggest. ☹
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579/9 "2005-09-01T15:35:25Z")
No, not lest you’d want to get a pair yourself.
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### Author:  [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579/10 "2005-09-01T21:21:10Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#):
>
> [No](http://static.flickr.com/1/721128_ae40ff9063_m.jpg) [you](http://www.cnn.com/WEATHER/9810/23/texas.floods.03/fire.ants.jpg) [can’t.](http://claycoleman.tripod.com/4c3bcd30.jpg)
Larry, what is your address so that I may direct my therapy and med bill to for those visuals that are now burning in my brain?
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579/11 "2005-09-01T21:55:13Z")
Slight hijack, but I keep wondering about wildlife in the waters. In addition to sewage, the people remaining from NOLA to South Alabama have to be wading in water occupied by snakes, alligators, turtles (which for those who don’t know can be vicious little bastards capable of biting a plug out of any human) and all other manner of creepy crawlies. I’m surprised none have been seen on camera.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579/12 "2005-09-01T22:31:16Z")
I have waded in flood water with those ant balls in another part of Louisiana. They are disgusting and fire ant bites hurt, especially if there are a lot of them. I always took sticks and tried to beat them apart but they just form again. There are usually a lot of dead ants that form the core of those balls.
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### Author:  [@NoPretentiousCodename](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoPretentiousCodename)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579/13 "2005-09-01T22:43:52Z")
[Antz]
“Be the ball. Be the ball!”
[/Antz]
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ant-balls-in-new-orleans/319579/14 "2005-09-02T03:56:49Z")
Who taught them how to melt ice?