About killer ants

There are not so many dangerous ants in the world. But, like with other animals, human fear has really big eyes: frightening stories about killer ants have become real legends for those who like to tickle their nerves on a sofa under a blanket.

However, dangerous ants do exist. In a strict scientific language, they, of course, are not called "killer ants", biologists call them differently:

• nomadic ants from both the Black continent and South America

  

• the so-called ant-bullet, bite pain which is greater than that of a chemical burn of moderate severity

  

• Australian bull ants, whose bite can be fatal to a sensitive person

  

• fiery red ant, so named precisely for its ability to sting very painfully.

  

On a note

For individuals with a very acute allergic reaction to insect bites, each of the above ants can be a killer.Moreover, isolated cases of suffocation and fatal intoxication of a person from the bite of just one ordinary red ant are known! Of course, these are exceptional incidents, and because of them it is incorrect to call all ants deadly.

About those types that knowledgeable people really fear, you should talk more.

 

Nomadic Ants (Siafu)

“All living things that came across in the way of the column or in the zone where the soldiers entered were immediately destroyed. The soldiers grabbed beetles, caterpillars, spiders, worms, other ants, larvae, wood lice, with powerful curved jaws, tore them and carried them to the column. If larger prey came across - a lizard, a snake, a mouse or a bird that could not fly up, the ants were piled on with a black stirring mass, and very soon the animal ceased to exist ...

... The ants passed, leaving only the bones of the rats and the chickens forgotten in the barn, who were trying to escape ... "

A. Tambiev, Living Paths of the Planet

The specificity of these ants lies in the fact that they do not have an anthill, but they multiply in temporary bivouacs, formed by the working ants themselves, clutching each other with their jaws.Such a bivouac has the shape of a ball and it seems absolutely chaotic, but in fact there is a clear order in it. Part of their lives, a colony of such ants wanders in search of food, for which they got their name.

Ants are soldiers of all kinds of nomadic ants look eerily: their jaws are larger than the head itself, and the insects themselves are very large — up to an inch and a half in length the ant soldier has. But the African nomadic ants are really huge: with a body length of up to 5 cm in the egg laying phase, it is the largest of the now known ants.

It is interesting

Females of nomadic ants set another peculiar record: during breeding periods they can lay up to 130,000 eggs daily. Such fertility is not observed in any other insect.

African killer ants really are not. The danger of nomadic ants as a whole is greatly exaggerated. Their bites are really extremely painful and can cause severe allergic reactions. Getting into the center of such a colony can lead to serious biting.

 

However, the cases of death from nomadic ants is not known.Moreover, the basis of the diet of these ants are other insects, and only a very small number of small vertebrates die from them - lizards, frogs, and young birds.

It is interesting

The biology of some birds is closely related to the life of African nomadic ants (another name is Siafu). For example, the ration of an octopus ant consists of more than half of the insects that have been frightened off by a moving colony of these ants. It is not surprising that most of the life of these birds is accompanied by a colony of nomadic ants as food sources.

Stray killer ants are nothing more than the rich imagination of adventure story authors (Russian forest ants no less bloodthirsty and also actively destroy other insects of a comparable size), and stories about devastated villages and skeletons gnawed in a matter of seconds are nothing more than literary thickening of colors.

 

Interesting video: African killer ants attack a male of their own species.

 

Ant bullet

These ants got their name for the terrible pain of bites: their poison contains one of the strongest toxins in the insect world - peroratoxin.Acute pain after an ant bite is felt for at least 24 hours, for which this species was also called the ant 24 hours.

 

Video example: a working ant bullet that caught a grasshopper

On a special scale of Schmidt’s pain, the pain of sting by these ants reaches the highest fourth level and exceeds that of burns and the bites of any other insects.

Ant-bullet is one of the largest ants in general: the length of a working individual is 2-2.5 cm, females - up to 3 cm.

They live in South America, and among some Indian tribes are used for the terrible ritual of man’s initiation: the boy is dressed in a sleeve with live ants tied to him.

After such a test, hands for several days can be paralyzed, lose sensitivity and turn black.

 

Interesting video: killer ants in a man’s initiation test

 

Black Bull Ants

These ants are quite large, but if it were not for their bites, they would hardly have become particularly famous. According to statistics in Tasmania from their bites ant bulldogs More people die each year than shark attacks, poisonous spiders and snakes combined.

The bite of a black ant-bulldog causes an acute allergic reaction in a person - more than 3% of those bitten were in anaphylactic shock.

At the same time, one can never predict in advance how the organism will react to the bite of this insect: the active substances in it differ from those of other related insects - wasps and bees - and even a person who normally responds to bee stings can become a victim of these ants.

It is noteworthy that evolutionary ants-bulldogs are very primitive. Perhaps this is due to their strong toxicity.

 

Fiery red ant

Fire ants are considered the most dangerous ants in general. And not so much because of a strong poison and an extremely painful bite, but rather because of its ability to take root in new conditions, quickly spread throughout the world and violate the stability of many biocenoses.

The original birthplace of fire ants is Brazil, but on the merchant ships these insects successfully migrated to the south of the United States, Australia and China. Today they are also struggling diligently in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Taiwan, but success is still on the side of the ants.

When a fire ant bites, it injects poison into the wound with the solenopsin toxin contained in it.On the Schmidt scale, the pain from the bites of a red fire ant is the same as the pain from a burn of fire, which was the reason for the name of the insect. Around the world, several thousand people bite by these insects and several deaths from anaphylactic shock happen every year: almost all those bitten have an acute allergic reaction.

Animals, both domestic and wild, suffer from the bites of these insects. According to estimates, the US budget fire ants cause damage annually at $ 5 billion, including the cost of medical care and veterinary care.

It is interesting

The red fire ant is considered to be one of the most dangerous invasive insects in the world: it survives in most places where it falls with humans, and because of aggressive behavior it strongly influences the structure of biological populations in the places of invasion.

It should be remembered that all ants, regardless of the degree of danger to humans, are necessary for the biocenosis in which they originally live in nature. Almost all ants are excellent fighters against plant pests, and the same stray ants also very effectively clean the path of their movements from any dead and sick animals.Therefore, the concepts of “dangerous” and “harmful” should not be confused, and even especially terrible insects should be treated as important participants in interrelated processes in nature.

 

An interesting video: a spider against a nomadic ant - who wins? ..