Magnum force

That old Frank Sinatra song High Hopes, in which a plucky lone ant moves a rubber tree plant, no longer seems quite so jolly. In Europe's latest insect insurgency, ants in Germany have caused power cuts and extensively damaged public infrastructure.

- Jane Clifton

Insects terrorising humans was a common theme of 1950s sci-fi movies but the modern reality here, while less scary, is literal devastation. There's something both Hitchcockian and karmically dystopian about insects destroying human habitats rather than the other way round.

Germany's ant immigrants are 4mm Tapinoma magnum, until recently found closer to the Mediterranean and North Africa. Germany has found them remarkably cold-tolerant settlers. Their mass-infiltration of building cavities and electrical circuitry boxes caused power cuts and wrecked a playground in the city of Kehl recently, and underground-dwelling colonies have lifted pavements near rail platforms in Karlsruhe.

They form super-colonies of around 20 million, happily merging with neighbouring underground settlements to cover many kilometres, hence their ability to undermine structures overhead.