Just when you think things can’t get worse:
Well, THAT’S reassuring.
So it’s only 348 gators you have to worry about. And no crocs or venomous snakes.
Sage advice.
I’m starting to understand where SyFy channel gets it movie ideas…
Don’t tell SyFy about the rafts of fire ants floating around on top of the flood water, looking for a bit of dry land.
On the bright side, they may be a fine counter to those escaped alligators.
On the bright side, our native alligators are much less aggressive than the imported crocs that they’ve contained. So they’ve gotten the worst threat taken care of.
Next on SyFy: they thought containing the crocodiles and venomous snakes was the right move…but they didn’t count on them BREEDING. Tune in tomorrow for
Ant-igator Vs. Snake-odile!
The gators deserve their freedom.
I am much more afraid of floating fire ants than gators.
That article explains why there are fire ant rafts in Texas now whereas there weren’t in the days of Katrina.
I’m sure I remember reading about fire ant rafts during the Katrina floods too.
I’m so glad I live in Ontario, where we only have to worry about freezing to death for five months of the year…
Freezing to death is actually not such a bad way to go. Especially if passed out drunk at the time.
As we can see here American alligator - Wikipedia, the natural range of alligators includes far more of Texas than just the town of Beaumont.
IOW, the 350 'gators in the sanctuary are just going to go out and join the thousands of other 'gators that already live in that county and each and every one of the adjoining counties.
I do think that a lot of flooded suburban and semi-rural Texans will be surprised at all the “entertaining” wildlife that returns to their area while the people are waiting for the waters to recede and the ground to dry out. Gonna be fun.
The price of alligator boots ought to plummet from the oversupply of skins. After, of course, they get the boot factories dried out and back in operation. Yee Haw!
However, some of the articles I read after googling indicates that post-Katrina flooding was bad overall for fire ants, because the flooding persisted too long. Apparently, fire ant rafting behavior begins to break down after a week, and the ants drown. Katrina flooding lasted for multiple weeks and in some cases months.
So, maybe a bright side? Houston may be getting de-anted? 
My understanding is that crazy ants were beginning to displace fire ants in southern areas of Texas. Do they raft as well, or is this divine intervention in the fire ant/crazy ant war?
give then a month and 50 bucks and it will be so…
Yeah, I wouldn’t worry too much about alligators in Texas. They are about the most chill crocodilians that you will ever meet. I used to have a small pet one one, I knew a man that had a fully grown one that could heel into his house and I have swam within close sight of them. They are intimidated by housecats for goodness sake. If alligators were people, they would be the stoners that are just fun to have around but don’t do much.
Crocodiles are assholes though. They will maim or kill you and I want nothing to do with them. They need to get some therapy from their alligator cousins.
Crazy ants?
Just HAD to google it. 98% survival rate against fire ant venom. Ignore most ant baits. Ignore most OTC pesticides. Multiple queens per colony.
Something tells me the fire ants are gonna lose this war.
Just popping in to say ‘thank FUCK I live in Australia’.
I misread that as “chili crocodilians” and found myself saying “yeah, I bet they’d be tasty in chili. Without beans, because Texas.”
“Texas: Making Australia look good since <fuck knows when>!”
Alligators and fire ants are small change. The Houston Ship Channel is one of the nation’s biggest chemical storage areas, and Texas doesn’t do regulation of this shit. Want to know what’s in all those tanks? Sorry, trade secret.