Floating Fire Ant Balls: Cindy's Lesser-Known Danger

Flooding remains the primary concern after Tropical Storm Cindy made landfall, but officials in Alabama are warning of another, less obvious danger from the storm – massive balls of floating fire ants.
These biting, stinging insects live in colonies of up to 500,000 ants, and during floods the entire colony can, according to the Imported Fire Ant Research and Management Project (IFARMP) at Texas A&M University, “form a loose ball, float, and flow with the water until they reach a dry area or object they can crawl up on.”
Fire ants, which were accidentally imported from South America in the early 1900s, are now native across the Southeast. Tropical Storm Cindy soaked much of their habitat, dumping over a foot of rain in places in Mississippi and 6 to 8 inches in parts of Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Louisiana.
https://www.wunderground.com/news/floating-fire-ant-swarms-hidden-danger-of-tropical-storm-cindy