What are yellow crazy ants that are causing cattle to go blind in Tamil Nadu?

While hordes of cattles in north India are succumbing to the lumpy skin disease transmitted by blood-feeding insects, there is a different kind of insect attacking livestock in the southern state of Tamil Nadu..

According to a report by the BBC, yellow crazy ants are attacking and blinding farm animals, and affecting the crop yields, putting the livelihoods of hundreds of people in danger.

What are yellow crazy ants?

Listed as one of the top 100 worst invasive species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the yellow crazy ants are usually found in tropical and subtropical regions.

These ants are recognised by their yellow colour and are named after their erratic, uncoordinated, frantic movements when disturbed.

Unlike most other species of ants, yellow crazy ants don’t bite or sting, but spray formic acid, which can cause reactions.

The ants are known to proliferate quickly and can do a large amount of damage to native wildlife, the BBC reported.

According to the Australian government's Wet Tropics Management Authority (WTMA), these ants have a slender body, usually 4mm and long skinny legs. The colour of the body is golden-brown with a darker brown abdomen. Though these ants can look for food in day as well as night, they are less active in intense heat and heavy rain.

When it comes to their feeding habits, they are an “opportunistic species”.

Dr Pronoy Baidya, an entomologist who has done research on yellow crazy ants, said as quoted by the BBC, "They don't have any diet preferences. They eat anything and everything."

They also prey on other ant species, bees and wasps.

What have they done in Tamil Nadu?

The yellow crazy ants have affected a number of villages around Tamil Nadu’s Karanthamalai forest region in Dindigul district, where most people are farmers or cattle owners.

The residents of these villages agreed to have seen the ants in the forest in the last few years, but it is the first time they have appeared in the villages in such great numbers.

The BBC report said that the cattle herders who lived near the forest have vacated their settlements due to an infestation of yellow crazy ants.

Villagers have alleged that their livestock and even snakes and rabbits have died after being attacked by these ants.

Dr Baidya said that the formic acid sprayed by hundreds of ants may have affected the eyes of the animals, but added that "it is not recorded whether they specifically target the eyes".

In humans, the acid can cause allergic reactions but may not be life-threatening.

The BBC reported that the proliferation of these ants can throw the ecology of the region out of gear. These ants have reportedly killed millions of red crabs on Australia’s Christmas island by blinding and incapacitating them.

With inputs from agencies

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