Close encounter

The invasion has begun, and we're all going to die! No, quit looking at the sky, dummy! It's from the other direction:

Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another.

The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.

What's more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together.

Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica.

These introduced Argentine ants are renowned for forming large colonies, and for becoming a significant pest, attacking native animals and crops.

[. . .]

While ants are usually highly territorial, those living within each super-colony are tolerant of one another, even if they live tens or hundreds of kilometres apart. Each super-colony, however, was thought to be quite distinct.

But it now appears that billions of Argentine ants around the world all actually belong to one single global mega-colony.

George Bush, I am sure, would have just commited this nation to attacking the ants without consulting anybody. As a result, the ants would just hate us even more, and we'd be friendless in the world. But at least he would have done something. We haven't heard a peep from Barack Obama yet.