AUSTIN - The Environmental Protection Agency has given approval for some southeast Texas homeowners to use a pesticide to deal with a species of ant that has ruined sewage pumps, fouled computers and caused fire alarms to malfunction.

Crazy rasberry ants, whose numbers in parts of Houston last month were estimated at 50 million per acre, are hairy, reddish-brown creatures. They are called "crazy" because they wander erratically instead of marching in regimented lines and are named after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who did battle against them early on.

The EPA approved a crisis exemption to the Texas Department of Agriculture that began Monday and allows the use of fipronil (Termidor SC), according to department release Tuesday.

Termidor is already approved for use against termites, but the EPA must clear its use in fighting other pests.

The crisis exemption will remain in effect until the EPA rules on the ag department's specific exemption submission that would last up to three years.

Only certified and licensed applicators or those being directly supervised by licensed applicators can apply the pesticide to infected areas in Brazoria, Galveston, Harris, Jefferson, Liberty, Montgomery and Wharton counties.

The ant, first seen in Texas in 2002, is also blamed for electrical shorts in homes and businesses throughout the Houston area.

The newly recognized species is believed to have arrived in a cargo shipment through the port of Houston. The good news about the ants is that they eat fire ants.

They also like to suck the sweet juices from plants, feed on such beneficial insects as ladybugs, and eat the hatchlings of a small, endangered type of grouse known as the Attwater prairie chicken.

They also bite humans, though not with a stinger like fire ants.