"It sounds like something out of science fiction: zombie fire ants. But it's all too real.

Fire ants wander aimlessly away from the mound.

Eventually their heads fall off, and they die.

The strange part is that researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M's AgriLife Extension Service say making 'zombies' out of fire ants is a good thing.

'It's a tool -- they're not going to completely wipe out the fire ant, but it's a way to control their population,' said Scott Ludwig , an integrated pest management specialist with the AgriLife Extension Service in Overton, in East Texas."

Bill Hanna reports for McClatchy Newspapers in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram May 12, 2009. [2]