# Phoenix peeps-floods and ANTS?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-peeps-floods-and-ants/698176
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 11, 2014, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-peeps-floods-and-ants/698176 "2014-09-11T13:45:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-peeps-floods-and-ants/698176/1 "2014-09-11T13:45:18Z")
Since Monday’s flood, I suddenly have ant hills, lots of them, where none existed on the weekend. I have a coupla properties and it’s everywhere there’s grass. WTH?
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-peeps-floods-and-ants/698176/2 "2014-09-11T18:45:07Z")
The inundation of sugar-covered marshamallow things attracted them? 😃
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-peeps-floods-and-ants/698176/3 "2014-09-11T18:49:39Z")
They need to fix their water-logged homes!
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### Author:  [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emtar_KronJonDerSohn)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-peeps-floods-and-ants/698176/4 "2014-09-11T18:55:36Z")
Every time it rains I get ants. Their tunnels get flooded so they give up on their day jobs and come for a visit.
I found a spready poison that seems to be working. It looks like oily sawdust and I spread it occasionally with a broadcast spreader and it has been keeping my home ant free. I’m still pretty draconian with my anti crumb procedures because DAMN IT LANA, THIS IS HOW YOU GET ANTS
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### Author:  [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-peeps-floods-and-ants/698176/5 "2014-09-11T19:24:42Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Every time it rains I get ants. Their tunnels get flooded so they give up on their day jobs and come for a visit.
This is what I was wondering, if they only would have drowned, dammit. So Amdro to the rescue and I hope they go back to doing whatever it is they do wherever it is they do it when it dries out again.
Thanks
> [@](#):
>
> The inundation of sugar-covered marshamallow things attracted them?
\:D
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### Author:  [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-peeps-floods-and-ants/698176/6 "2014-09-11T19:27:07Z")
Ants don’t really peep, they lack any vocal apparatus… That sound effect was laid in by the Foley editor in the movie “Them”, starring James Arness, 1954…
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### Author:  [@Lightlystarched](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightlystarched)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-peeps-floods-and-ants/698176/7 "2014-09-11T19:33:49Z")
Yes!! Ants everywhere. They were even in my car on Tuesday morning. I still can’t figure out how they got inside. Or why? I parked in direct sunlight at work and hoped they’d fry inside. They seemed all gone by afternoon.
We did go buy some ant killer and put that down Tuesday evening where the worst of the hills are.
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### Author:  [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-peeps-floods-and-ants/698176/8 "2014-09-11T20:02:48Z")
Fire ant colonies caught in floods form rafts or balls with their own bodies, with the queen and larvae protected inside. The rafts drift until they hit something solid, then the ants pour out, looking for a place to rebuild. If you’ve got a patch of ground adjacent to floodwaters, be prepared for it to become a fire ant refugee center.
Fire ant raft: [http://i.imgur.com/QGHZQ.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/QGHZQ.jpg)
What it looks like when a raft hits a patch of grass: [Warning: Floating Fire Ants! - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0HqQi2jEzE)
A National Geographic video about rafting fire ants (which is far too sympathetic and not nearly kill-it-with-fire enough): [National Geographic](http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-fire-ant-raft)
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### Author:  [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-peeps-floods-and-ants/698176/9 "2014-09-11T20:10:23Z")
> [@Balance](#):
>
> Fire ant colonies caught in floods form rafts or balls with their own bodies, with the queen and larvae protected inside. The rafts drift until they hit something solid, then the ants pour out, looking for a place to rebuild. If you’ve got a patch of ground adjacent to floodwaters, be prepared for it to become a fire ant refugee center.
>
> Fire ant raft: [Just some red ants floating through flood water in Florida - Imgur](http://i.imgur.com/QGHZQ.jpg)
> What it looks like when a raft hits a patch of grass: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0HqQi2jEzE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0HqQi2jEzE)
> A National Geographic video about rafting fire ants (which is far too sympathetic and not nearly kill-it-with-fire enough): [National Geographic](http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-fire-ant-raft)
THat is seriously awesome. And horrifying. :eek:
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### Author:  [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-peeps-floods-and-ants/698176/10 "2014-09-11T20:31:38Z")
Jeez. And it was (they’re saying) a 1000 yr. flood. Holy shit. MORE AMDRO!
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### Author:  [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2014, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoenix-peeps-floods-and-ants/698176/11 "2014-09-11T22:56:35Z")
> [@Malthus](#):
>
> THat is seriously awesome. And horrifying. :eek:
When I was growing up and had to paddle out of the backwater\* to get to school, I was taught early to watch out for those rafts and keep the paddle well away from them. Imagine that seething mass swarming up a handle toward you.
\*We had backwater floods, rather than flash floods–water flowing down toward us faster than it could drain away over an extended period, so the rivers and bayous overflowed and covered the low-lying roads for months at a time.