Tom Rasberry is an exterminator from Pearland, Texas who first identified the crazy rasberry ant in 2002.[1][2] Rasberry has been key to the fight against the ants, which have been known to short out many different types of electrical apparatuses[3][4] and estimates that he has spent over 2000 hours researching them.[5]
The Johnson Space Center called in Rasberry around March 2008 in an attempt to keep the ants out of their facilities.[6] Rasberry found three colonies at the NASA site, but all have been small enough to control.[2] Rasberry said that "With the computer systems they have in there, it could devastate the facility. If these ants got into the facility in the numbers they have in other locations, well, it would be awful. I've been in this business for 32 years, and this is unlike anything I've ever seen. Anything. When you bring in entomologists from all over the U.S. and they're in shock and awe, that shows you what it's like."[2]