The Story

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How Fire Ants Are Taking Over North America

WUNC | By Sean Cole

Published August 19, 2013 at 1:15 PM EDT

http://www.thestory.org/sites/default/files/public/audio/story/2013_08_19_fire_ants_taking_over.mp3

Justin Nobel wasn’t always an expert on fire ants. But ever since he was swarmed by them on a picnic in New Orleans, he has been writing about them. The search began in Mobile, Ala., and it is marching up north.

Also in this show: In a patch of eastern Ecuador's Amazon rain forest, a researcher has been looking for treehopper insects that communicate using sound; producer Sean Cole goes on the hunt to answer this question: can animals be creative?; and we have another nice piece from the Memory Palace, this one on what inspired one man to invent the telegraph.