There are not so many ants dangerous to humans in the world. But, as with other animals, human fear has really big eyes: frightening stories about killer ants have become real legends among those who like to tickle their nerves on the couch under the covers.
However, dangerous ants do exist. In strict scientific language, they, of course, are not called "killer ants", biologists call them differently:
- army ants from both the Black Continent and South America
- the so-called bullet ant, the soreness of the bite of which exceeds that of a moderate chemical burn
- Australian bulldog ants, whose bite can be fatal to a sensitive person
- the fiery red ant, so named precisely for its ability to sting very painfully.
On a note
For individuals with a very severe allergic reaction to insect stings, 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 occurrences, and because of them it is incorrect to call all ants deadly dangerous.
Those species that knowledgeable people are really afraid of should be discussed in more detail.
Army ants (siafu)
“Every living thing that got in the way of the column or in the zone where the soldiers entered was immediately destroyed.With powerful curved jaws, the soldiers grabbed beetles, caterpillars, spiders, worms, other ants, larvae, wood lice, tore them up and carried them into the column. If a larger prey came across - a lizard, a snake, a mouse or a bird that could not fly, the ants piled on in a black moving mass, and very soon the animal ceased to exist ...
... The ants have passed, leaving only the bones of the rats trying to escape and the chickens forgotten in the barn ... "
A. Tambiev, Living Ways of the Planet
The specificity of these ants lies in the fact that they do not have an anthill, but they breed in temporary bivouacs formed by the worker ants themselves, grabbing each other with their jaws. Such a bivouac has the shape of a ball and seems completely chaotic, but in fact a clear order reigns in it. For part of their life, a colony of such ants wanders in search of food, for which they got their name.
Soldier ants of all types of nomadic ants look intimidating: their jaws are larger than the head itself, and the insects themselves are very large - an ant-soldier has a length of up to one and a half centimeters. But the female of the African nomadic ants is really huge: with a body length of up to 5 cm in the oviposition phase, she is the largest of the currently known ants.
It is interesting
Female army ants also set another kind of record: during breeding seasons, they can lay up to 130,000 eggs daily. Such fertility is not observed in any other insect.
African killer ants are actually not. The danger of army ants is generally greatly exaggerated. Their bites are indeed extremely painful and can cause severe allergic reactions.Getting into the center of such a colony can lead to serious bites.
However, there are no known cases of human deaths from army ants. Moreover, other insects are the basis of the diet of these ants, and only a very small number of small vertebrates die from them - lizards, frogs, bird chicks.
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 diet of the ocellated ant is more than half composed of insects frightened away by a moving colony of these ants. Not surprisingly, these birds accompany colonies of nomadic ants for most of their lives as food sources.
Wandering killer ants are nothing more than a figment of the rich imagination of the authors of adventure stories (Russian forest ants are no less bloodthirsty and also actively destroy other insects of a comparable size), and stories about devastated villages and skeletons gnawed in seconds are nothing more than literary exaggeration .
Interesting video: African killer ants attack a male of their own species
bullet ant
These ants got their name for the terrible pain from bites: their venom contains one of the most powerful toxins in the insect world - poneratoxin. Acute pain after an ant bite is felt for at least 24 hours, for which this species has also received the name "ant 24 hours".
Video example: Bullet ant worker catching a grasshopper
On the special Schmidt Pain Scale, the pain from stings from these ants reaches the highest level of fourth and exceeds that from burns and bites from any other insects.
The bullet ant is one of the largest ants in general: the length of the working individual is 2-2.5 cm, the female is up to 3 cm.
They live in South America, and among some Indian tribes they are used for a terrible male initiation ritual: a sleeve with live ants tied to it is put on the boy’s arm.
After such a test, the hands may be paralyzed for several days, lose sensation and turn black.
Interesting video: killer ants in the ritual of initiation of the tester into men
Black bulldog ants
These ants are quite large, but if not for their bites, they would hardly have become particularly famous. According to statistics, in Tasmania, more people die each year from bulldog ant bites than from attacks by sharks, poisonous spiders and snakes combined.
The bite of a black bulldog ant causes an acute allergic reaction in humans - more than 3% of those bitten were in a state of anaphylactic shock.
At the same time, it is never possible to predict in advance how the body 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 reacts to bee stings can become a victim of these ants.
It is noteworthy that bulldog ants are evolutionarily very primitive. Perhaps this is due to their strong toxicity.
Fire Red Ant
Fire ants are considered the most dangerous ants in general. And not so much because of the strong poison and extremely painful bite, but because of its ability to take root in new conditions, quickly spread around the world and disrupt the stability of many biocenoses.
The original homeland of fire ants is Brazil, but on merchant ships these insects successfully moved to the south of the USA, to Australia and China. Today, they are also diligently fought in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Taiwan, but so far success is on the side of the ants.
When bitten, a fire ant injects poison into the wound with the toxin solenopsin contained in it. According to the Schmidt scale, the pain from the bites of a red fire ant is the same as the pain from a fire burn, which was the reason for the name of the insect. Around the world, several thousand people are bitten by these insects every year and several deaths from anaphylactic shock: almost all those bitten have an acute allergic reaction.
Suffer from the bites of these insects and animals, both domestic and wild. It is estimated that fire ants cause $5 billion in annual damage to the US budget, including medical and veterinary costs.
It is interesting
The red fire ant is considered one of the most dangerous invasive insects in the world: it takes root in most places that it enters with a person, and due to its aggressive behavior, it strongly affects the structure of biological populations in places of introduction.
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 clear their paths of movement from any dying 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 large ant - who wins? ..
