Explosive reproduction Invasive super ants besiege town near Switzerland

In the town of Kehl in Baden, an invasive ant species is teaching local residents the meaning of fear. The black insects dig up lawns, crawl into the smallest cracks and even cause power and internet outages.

The invasive ant species Tapinoma magnum appeared in the small German town of Kehl practically overnight. No one can say exactly how the creepy-crawlies found their way from North Africa to the small-town idyll of Baden-Württemberg. What is unquestionable, however, is this: Millions of the black ants continue to spread in Kehl - and they are almost impossible to control.

The insects, which are just three millimetres in size, are undermining sidewalks and streets, penetrating the walls of houses and junction boxes. The ants have already paralyzed electricity and internet networks on several occasions. In Kehl-Marlen, the ant hotspot is a playground in the middle of a residential area.

Desperate residents

Unlike native species, the Tapinoma ant has hundreds of queens in partial nests. These can unite to form a super-colony. As a result, the black creepy-crawlies reproduce almost explosively within a very short time.

In Kehl, despair reigns over the ant invasion. "They were already in the house - almost everywhere. In the children's room, bedroom, in the kitchen," the Kiren family told SWR. The father of the family has been fighting an unsuccessful battle against the little crawlers. He has sucked them in and used various antidotes such as ant traps, acetic acid and cinnamon. But nothing helps against the mini invaders. The swarms of ants cannot be destroyed.

Difficult to combat

The town of Kehl has already spent around 20,000 euros (around 19,600 francs) on combating the ants, reports "SWR". A successful remedy against the nimble animals has not yet been found. Neither hot foam nor poison bait have been able to minimize the population. "So far, there is nothing that is guaranteed to work against the invasive ant," explains the city's environmental officer Gregor Kuschate to Bild.

The damage in Kehl is already considerable. Cracks are forming in the streets of several districts. In the meantime, other neighboring towns and regions are also reporting the sudden appearance of the invasive ants. The crawlers have already been spotted in Karlsruhe, Weinheim, Heidelberg, Ketsch and near Stuttgart. Neighboring regions in Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and France have also reported the appearance of Tapinoma ants.