On March 26th, 1884, the city of Cincinnati, Ohio was on edge, waiting for a jury to convict a defendant who was accused of murdering a man in December of the year before. That verdict did come down guilty, but not for murder. Instead, the man was convicted of manslaughter. That wasn’t good enough for the people of Cincinnati, and over the next few days one of the most destructive riots in American history rocked the city.
Solenopsis invicta, the “Red Imported Fire Ant”, native to South America, has proven a tenacious and destructive pest in the United States, costing Americans billions of dollars every year. That is why, in the late 1950s, the United States embarked on an all out war against the six-legged menace.