Electric Ants - Have I seen them?

[Lisa_L]

I recently read an article about 'electric ants' being seen in the UK for the first time. I found this really interesting as a couple of years ago I had hundreds of ants in the base of my electric kettle. Each day I would come down and shake the kettle and out fell the dead bodies of many frazzled ants, as well as some live ones. They disappeared eventually and I haven't seen them since. Could they have been the species in the article below, and if so should I tell someone about them? i.e Defra? I live in Cheshire by the way.

'Electric' ants seen in UK for first time - Nature, Environment - The Independent

[eucera]

Funnily enough, the Ant Recorder in BWARS has just posted this comment on the BWARS message board "I recently pointed out an article in "Russia Today" that mentioned the ant Lasius neglectus being found in an electrical fuse-box in a private house in Leicester. I have subsequently been in communication with the journalist that wrote the piece and it seems the report was based on a single interview with the householder with no corroboration from a pest controller and the journalists does not even have the address where these ants were supposedly found. I think BWARS must treat this as a non-record"

[Jason Green]

'Electric' ants seen in UK for first time - Nature, Environment - The Independent - A record from a National Trust property in Gloucestershire.

[Lisa_L]

Thanks for the response, I wish I had heard of them before I discovered them - would have done something at the time. I expect they would need to be identified formally to be taken seriously then? I'm even more curious now!!

[Beekeeper]

As an electrician, i find this thread very interesting, will be keeping a lookout for these little creatures in the future.

BK