Word: ante
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Reddish and only ¼in. long, the fire ant has a peculiar talent: it chews a slit in the skin of its victim, lifts the skin with its mandibles, curves its abdomen under its body and injects a dose of fluid which causes fiery pain, raises angry welts, and may form a pocket of pus. Victims highly sensitive to ant poison may be hospitalized for weeks; a baby in New Orleans was killed by the ants...
...South, long inured to red bugs, screwworms, rattlesnakes, alligators and other varmints, irritably recognized last week that it had a new pest on its hands: the fire ant...
What is especially annoying is that the newcomer is a foreign import. Native to southern South America, the ant, brought in nobody knows how, established a beachhead near Mobile at least 30 years ago. Suddenly, three years ago, it began to multiply so rapidly that it now ranks as a major menace. Traveling partly in autos and trucks, the ants have spread their fiery trail through the South from Texas to North Carolina. Senators from Louisiana and Congressmen from Mississippi and Alabama have introduced bills in Congress asking for aid, and next week the House Agriculture Committee will open hearings...
Egypt (pop. 22,500,000). The vast ant heap of Soviet equipment received by Nasser surprised the Israelis, the English and French. Nasser believed that he could take Russian help without becoming a prisoner of the Communists, was obviously too cocksure. But signs persist that he is still nervous about becoming too dependent on the Russians...
...fire ant (Solenopsis saevissima), recently introduced into the U.S. from South America and already a plague to farmers in ten Southern states, is fast becoming a medical problem as well, reported Tulane University doctors. The tiny creature (from ⅛ to ¼ in. long, red with a black abdomen) has a savage sting that in mild cases causes a severe blister and swelling, sometimes accompanied by low fever and nausea; in some allergic individuals the sting, like bee venom, can cause anaphylactic shock, and there have been several deaths...