Tom Rasberry

Tom Rasberry is an exterminator from Pearland, Texas who first identified the crazy rasberry ant in 2002. [cite web
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/us/16ants.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
title=A Pest Without a Name, Becoming Known to Ever More
first=Ralph
last=Blumenthal
date=2008-05-16
publisher=The New York Times] cite web
url=http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9086098
title=NASA moves to save computers from swarming ants: Attack of the (computer) killer ants - pests taking out machines along Texas gulf coast
first=Sharon
last=Gaudin
publisher=Computer World
date=2008-05-15] Rasberry has been key to the fight against the ants, which have been known to short out many different types of electrical apparatuses [cite news
publisher=New York Daily News / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
title=Crazy rasberry ants, size of fleas, wreaking havoc across Texas
date=2008-05-14] [cite web
url=http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2008-05-14-houston-ants_N.htm
title=Ants swarm Houston area, fouling electronics
publisher=USA Today / Associated Press
first=Linda Stewart
last=Ball
date=2008-05-14] and estimates that he has spent over 2000 hours researching them. [cite web
url=http://www.necn.com/Boston/SciTech/Beware-Crazy-ants-on-the-loose-/1210859352.html
title=Beware! Crazy ants on the loose
publisher=New England Cable News/ABC News
date=2008-05-16]

Hired by NASA

The Johnson Space Center called in Rasberry around March 2008 in an attempt to keep the ants out of their facilities. [cite web
url=http://www.itwire.com/content/view/18271/1066/
title=Rasberry, we have an ant problem: Exterminator saves NASA from crazy ants
first=William
last=Atkins
date=2008-05-17
publisher=iTWire] Rasberry found three colonies at the NASA site, but all have been small enough to control. Rasberry said that "With the computer systems they have in there, it could devastate the facility. If these ants got into the facility in the numbers they have in other locations, well, it would be awful. I've been in this business for 32 years, and this is unlike anything I've ever seen. Anything. When you bring in entomologists from all over the U.S. and they're in shock and awe, that shows you what it's like."

References