For the record

although I am a live & let live sort of human, it would not bother me in the least if red imported fire ants were eradicated from North America, where they have no natural predators. From that infallible source, Wikipedia:

In the 1930s, colonies were accidentally introduced into the United States through the seaport of Mobile, Alabama: cargo ships from Brazil docking at Mobile unloaded goods infested with the ants.[2] Biologist E.O. Wilson says that he reported the first colony, in the Mobile area, when he was 13.[3] The ants then spread from Alabama to almost every state of the American South, from Texas to Maryland and a few other Mid-Atlantic states. Since the 1990s infestations have been reported in New Mexico and parts of Arizona in the Southwest. They have also been reported in California in the West, but probably arrived via ship or truck rather than by spreading.[1] In a similar way, the ants were accidentally introduced into Australia in 2001.[4]

[my emphasis]

Oh for crying out loud. He said this in a lecture at Trinity University about two years ago. I'll bet he remembers a childhood friend named Billy Fletcher, just like Owen did (in chapter 6).