Can ants kill a person. Who are fire ants. Benefits of killer ants
At the word ant, almost everyone will have a picture of an ordinary small, black ant of small size, well, or of its red forest counterpart.
However, among the large number of these insects, there are also ants that, despite small size able to sow horror and panic not only among people, but also among animals. It's about about an army ant soldier.
The appearance of the "soldier"
Length adult the soldier ant is equal to - 1.5 cm. Among other representatives of this family, these are rather large insects.
The body of the army ant itself has a dark red color, covered with thin hairs in the color of the body, the head is several tones lighter. Despite the fact that this ant has eyes, it sees absolutely nothing. In addition, the insect is equipped with powerful, sharp and massive mandibles, the size of which is equal to half of its body. It is these adaptations in ants that have the destructive effect of all living things, and it does not matter what size they are.
Habitat of the army ant
The species lives in the Amazon.
The families that exist today live in the channels of the Amazon.
Army Ant Lifestyle
In their own way, these insects are unique creations of nature. They do not need any anthills, and they do not build them, as they are insect nomads. They got their name due to the fact that about a million individuals are part of the ant colony, in fact, this is just a mobile battalion. While the queen is busy breeding offspring, the ants scour the entire area in order to provide themselves and the future generation with food.
Soldier ants don't need any anthills.
Another feature that sets them apart from other ants is their ability to use their bodies to create organic architectural structures. Clinging to each other, they form any structure that will be used for the benefit of the entire colony. These are not only living "walls" that protect offspring and their queen from bad weather, but also bridges that make it possible to overcome any obstacle.
reproduction
When the time comes for the queen to lay eggs, the number of which can reach several thousand, the entire ant colony stops for a halt. After small larvae are born from the eggs, the column, carefully lifting them, again begins its movement, bringing death and ruin on its way.
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. On 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
- fiery, 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 incidents, and because of them it is incorrect to call all ants deadly dangerous.
about the types that knowledgeable people really afraid, we should talk 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 up to one and a half centimeters in length. 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.
This 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 really 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, 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, bird chicks.
This 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.
Stray killer ants are nothing more than a figment of the rich imagination of the authors of adventure stories (Russians are no less bloodthirsty and also actively destroy other insects of comparable size), and stories about devastated villages and skeletons gnawed in a matter of seconds are nothing more than literary exaggeration.
Interesting video: African killer ants attack a male of their own species
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: length working individual is 2-2.5 cm, females - up to 3 cm.
They live in South America, and among some Indian tribes they are used for a terrible ritual of initiation of a man: 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 they die from their bites every year. more people 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 responds 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. Worldwide, 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 care costs.
This 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 because of aggressive behavior strongly influences 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 scary insect should be treated as important participants in interrelated processes in nature.
An interesting video: a spider against a large ant - who wins? ..
Associated with a small insect that spends its entire life in hard work. In most cases, they are harmless. The only danger they pose is damage to the crop or a slight redness at the bite site, which quickly passes. But in the world there are very dangerous representatives of this species. Killer ants are able to attack people and sting ruthlessly, putting dangerous poisons under the skin.
This type of insect is typical for tropical and subtropical latitudes, where it is warm and humid climate. The largest populations are found in Africa, the species lives in Central and Southern parts of Asia. They are also called wandering ants or siafu army ants. These are large individuals, whose body length is about 1.5 cm.
They got their name because of their characteristic way of life. Army ants do not build a stationary anthill. They are constantly changing their habitat.
Interesting!
The colony walks about 1 km daily. They move in a broad column, which gradually tapers towards the tail. Its width can reach 15 m, and length up to 45 m.
Nomad ants strictly adhere to certain order during the procession. The edges of the column are guarded by soldier ants, closer to the middle, working individuals move, which carry food and future offspring.
The homeland of the species is South America, distributed over much larger territories and can be found in the USA and Mexico. Individuals are small in size, which do not exceed 6 mm. African killer ants have excellent adaptive abilities, so their distribution area is constantly increasing.
Looking at the photo of this species, attention is immediately focused on a powerful sting, which has some resemblance to a similar organ of a scorpion. They also have rather large chewing jaws, which play not only a defensive role, but also as a way to transfer food particles.
Poison ants are recognized as the most great view among relatives.
- The body length of a worker ant is 2-2.5 m. Their female grows up to 3 cm.
- The predominant habitat is South America.
- has a black-brown color.
- characteristic feature is the presence of a powerful sting, inside of which a large amount of dangerous poison is concentrated.
This species does not like to roam and prefers to equip anthills in the depths of the soil. There is enough moisture for them to produce offspring. A characteristic feature of the anthill is the simplicity of design. Wasps and spiders are used as food, as well as plant and fruit juices.
Interesting!
The bulldog ant uterus can penetrate other people's anthills and kill the true queen. After that, a new queen remains in the colony. Working individuals begin to serve her.
Bulldogs live only in the wild and are not inclined to occupy human dwellings. Once near the anthill, a person should immediately leave this place. The guards of the nest instantly give a command, and almost the entire colony goes into battle. The bites of this species are considered the most dangerous in the world. They can lead to severe anaphylactic shock, and in more severe cases, even death.
Thus, it is quite difficult to assess the danger of a bite from each species. This is due to the characteristics of the body and its resistance. In the habitats of dangerous individuals, warning and education of local residents about possible dangers and precautions is always carried out.
In their fight against "harmful" insects, people do much more harm to themselves than those with whom they fight.
Ants are social insects of the stinging Hymenoptera suborder, the closest relatives of wasps and bees, but not all species have a sting and poisonous glands. It is thanks to their remarkable ability to cooperate that ants have become the dominant group of arthropods. In warm countries, on 1 hectare of land, you can count up to 20 million individuals of these ever-hurrying, businesslike creatures.
Over 10,000 ant species are distributed throughout the globe, except far north and Antarctica. The most interesting, diverse and highly organized of them live in the tropics, but in Russia there are also some "ant wise men". For example, red wood ants (Formica rufa) are an inexhaustible source of research and discovery. Surely you have seen their magnificent anthills in our forests, where little red-haired workaholics participate in soil formation and save plants from caterpillars.
Ant Wars
A few paces away from me, among the dense vegetation, a black mass appeared on the ground: ants were advancing. These predators, ants-ecitons, destroy all living things in their path.
Arkady Fidler . Call of the Amazon
If Europe manages to get along more or less peacefully next to the ants, then the United States is less fortunate. As recently as yesterday, you threw a sugar bowl on the floor in horror at the sight of yellow pharaoh ants (Monomorium pharaonis) and urgently called the insect extermination company? What a trifle these your worries are compared to the long-term war between the USA and red fire ants (Solenopsis invicta)!
Dangerous invaders were accidentally brought by sea to the United States from South America in the early 1900s, when there was an active trade in large cattle. Because the climatic conditions turned out to be favorable, and there were no and could not be natural enemies on alien land, after a few years the fire ants multiplied in incredible numbers. They "captured" more and more territories, moving from Alabama to California. Small fiery creatures mercilessly stung farmers, erected anthills in the path of mowers and undermined the image of an omnipotent capitalist power.
In fact, the Americans suffered much more from the poison of wasps and bees, but now the USDA had a good reason to launch "heavy artillery" against fire ants. Pesticides of the Mirex brand were sprayed throughout the southeast of the United States from numerous helicopters and began to wait for the results ... The first to sound the alarm was the biologist, founder of the global environmental movement, Rachel Carson, who later described all the vicissitudes of this war in her bestseller " Silent spring (Silent spring, 1962). “Who has the right to decide for all of us,” she indignantly, “what is the highest value is a world without insects, a barren world, not even adorned with the wing of a flying bird?” Rachel turned out to be right after eating Mirex-flavored worms, all migratory thrushes disappeared, and in 1976 it was convincingly proven that these chemicals are dangerous to humans and are a heart toxin. Perhaps Carson herself was a victim of cancer-causing pesticides—she died two years after the book was published.
By the way, in the USSR there were also attempts to use Mirex, but not on such a large scale.
chemical question
A mortal did not win victories over the sky.
Everyone in a row is devoured by the earth-eater.
Are you still whole? And brag about it?
Wait: you'll get the ants for dinner!
Omar Khayyam. Rubaiyat
By the 1990s, fire ants, unlike thrushes, had recovered and expanded their populations. And now they are interested not only in newborn chicks, but also in wires, air conditioners, traffic lights and other electrical appliances that they disable, causing economic damage to the United States in the amount of $ 6 billion a year. The description of the great "ant confrontation" is included in many abstracts and scientific work on ecology, in particular, in 2004, the "detective" work of Joshua Busa was published ( Joshua Blu Buhs. The Fire Ant Wars), which once again reminds of the possible consequences of the use of pesticides.
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Despite the development of transgenic technologies that will help us protect our crops from codling moths and leafworms, the topic of chemicals is still one of the hottest in the world. For example, the BBC recently reported that nearly one-third of British food contains pesticides. Even more noise was made in June 2006 by the discovery of a group of scientists from the Department of Public Health at Harvard University, led by Alberto Ascherio (Alberto Ascherio). Agricultural pesticides have been shown to increase the risk of developing Parkinson's disease by 70%. On the basis of this discovery, Mrs. Bertrand Couderc, a lawyer for a certain agricultural worker, for the first time in France, was able to prove that his illness was an occupational disease and achieve significant financial compensation for your subordinate.
Perhaps, with the help of the fashionable theme of the far-fetched danger of genetically modified organisms, they are trying to distract us from a more real threat? For me, the "chemical question" will always be relevant, since I myself have experienced the effects of chemicals. When I was 13 years old, we moved to a town not far from one of the oldest cities in Siberia, Usolye-Sibirskoye. It always seemed to me that Siberia with its wonderful green taiga is the lungs of Russia. How wrong I was! Almost every morning our houses were covered with a thick cloud of chlorine, and after a few months from a cheerful and healthy child I have become a stunted creature. Then I did not know who was to blame and to whom I should turn my hatred. But surely they could breathe normally and did not know the terrible word "asthma". I was urgently sent to Kyrgyzstan to my grandmother, and I was saved, which cannot be said about some other children who became disabled. They say that at present the ecological situation in Siberia has improved only because many chemical industries are idle due to the economic crisis. But back to our "great and terrible" ants.
As tempting as it was to launch a "chemical attack" on the ants, the USDA has shifted from pesticides to more sophisticated strategic developments. Thus, natural enemies of fire ants, humpback flies from the genus Phoridae, have already been imported from South America, which lay their eggs in the body of a living Solenopsis invicta. The developing larva eventually decapitates the ant with the help of a special enzyme. In South America, one can often observe how humpbacks swarm over ant colonies, and their larvae, hiding behind a mask from the head of an ant, brazenly “walk” along with Hymenoptera.
And the fight goes on again
The ants had no doubt spotted the arsonists and were chasing them. They ran faster than people, and the distance between the one and the other was getting smaller and smaller.
Vladimir Obruchev. plutonium
No one wants to go through the sad experience of the United States, but until scientists have invented a biofilter like the one shown in the movie "A Sound of Thunder" (A Sound of Thunder), no one is immune from invasions of South American ants. So, in March 2006, Israel was attacked by the army of the same militant Solenopsis invicta. Creepy photos of Israeli crabs covered in fire ants have been circulating around the world, and "Beware of ants" warnings have appeared on beaches. In Australia, frightened environmentalists are fighting the "crazy" yellow ants Anoplolepis gracilipes, which inject acid into the eyes of local defenseless lizards and chicks and threaten to destroy endemic fauna. They are trying to fight them with the help of a special insecticide "Fipronil" mixed into food balls that are attractive only to ants of this species.
Russia, with its cool climate, is not a very nice place for tropical "barbarians", however, a fire ant Solenopsis savissima var. has already been found in one of the Moscow hospitals. Richteri. If we accept on faith the hypothesis of some pessimistic scientists, in particular, Mike Pilling (Mike Pilling) from the University of Lind West Yorkshire, in 100200 years the climate in Europe will become incredibly warmer. Probably, it will be pleasant to harvest two or three crops a year, but nothing else will prevent heat-loving ants from conquering new territories.Some maladjusted European tropical ants capable of causing a heart attack with one of their own appearance What will happen if they come to visit you? In the jungle South-East Asia I saw colonies of ants a meter (!) wide that swept through the grass like giant black waves. Tourists fled away, and only naturalists like me looked at this riot of life with great pleasure. And the point here is not courage, but knowledge of the habits of insects most ants do not at all look for meetings with a person and rush at him only when the “destroyer” approaches the nest. The most dangerous are South American and African wandering ants, which sweep away everything in their path, and people have to leave villages or build a fire barrier around their houses.
In Search of Solomon's Ring
So ants, colliding somewhere,
rub their stigmas to find out
maybe about booty or about the path.
But only a moment, the embrace of friendship lasts.
Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy. Purgatory. XXVI song
Is there a way to protect yourself from Hymenoptera invasions? Probably, the study of the behavior of social insects will help us in this. When crowds of hungry leeches or mosquitoes attack you, you have to flee, but ants are more highly organized creatures, so why not negotiate with them! As the prominent ethologist and Nobel laureate Konrad Z. Lorenz used to say: “I have every reason to believe that Solomon really could talk with animals, and even without the help of a magic ring, the possession of which is attributed to him by legend.”
The so-called hypothetical language of ants is still too complicated for human understanding, but experiments to decipher it have been going on for a long time. This language, most likely, consists of a complex of smells (pheromones), gestures (limb movements) and antennal contacts. The most popular object for studying the "linguistics" of insects honey bees, relatives of ants. It was on them that the Austrian zoologist Karl von Frisch, who received in 1973 Nobel Prize, proved the existence of a symbolic language of dances. The final confirmation of the presence of "language" abilities in bees was received in the early 1990s by an engineer from Denmark, Bent Bach Andersen. He conducted a truly amazing experiment, creating an artificial robotic bee that gave commands to real bees where to fly for nectar. And they did it! Such experiments are incredibly difficult for a number of reasons. For example, bees from different localities have different dialects, much like people from different republics.
But this does not prevent us from dreaming how convenient it would be to learn to “speak” to ants: “Danger! Everyone get out of this area immediately!" A less fantastic way to deal with ants is to synthesize the smell of ant enemies and introduce it into the anthill. Insects will no longer distinguish who is theirs and who is a stranger, and will arrange a "fratricidal" war. Similar experiments are already being conducted at the University of California at Irvine (UC Irvine) on the Argentine ants Linepithema humile, also imported from South America and crowding out local arthropods. A group of scientists led by Neil Tsutsui managed to obtain a substance that "Argentines" perceive as a label of ants of another species.
Unless they know how to embroider with a cross
Is there anything in the world more beautiful than an ant? The lines of his body are clean and curved, the aerodynamics are perfect He looks like an Italian racing car.
Bernard Werber. Ants
If we forget about the ant wars, in which man himself is guilty, then the civilization of ants is the most interesting object for peaceful study and contemplation. Try one day to watch the "ant wise men", and very soon such a hobby can grow into something more. The simplest and most harmless experiment to identify the ant "intelligence" is as follows: put a low candle on the dome of the "house" of redheads forest ants, and you'll find they're capable of putting out fires with well-aimed formic acid shots.
The mysterious behavior of insects gave rise to and new fashion Some European pet stores sell special formicaria (something like strong terrariums) with small colonies of ants inside. In Russia, this hobby is only in its infancy, but there are already special clubs for ant lovers. Here you can discuss what to feed your pets and how to keep them. So, many ants die after eating mayonnaise or sausage, but live happily ever after if they are fed fresh honey. The fact that ants are no less gourmets than people, I was convinced on September 8, 2006 at a book fair in Moscow, talking with science fiction and insect lover Bernard Werber.
Tell me, how do you know such details of the life of an ant civilization? Did you really watch them or is everything written fantasy? I asked this kindest Frenchman.
I moved a small anthill to the courtyard of my house and watched the insects with pleasure. What angered me the most was that they didn't want to eat anything but caviar! After completing the research, I took them back to the forest.
Fortunately, people have an interest in ants not only gastronomic. Ants are the best in many ways, and it would be nice to learn something from them. For example, if you carry out simple mathematical calculations, it turns out that ants run faster than people. That is, if they were our size, they would reach a speed of 80 km / h. In addition to unprecedented speeds, these insects also demonstrate the phenomenon of longevity. Usually the anthill is renewed every year, but some females live up to 10-20 years. Perhaps the secret of their longevity is in the ant " state system"? The architectural talents of these small insects cannot but arouse admiration.
Many human corporations are affectionately called "anthills", but how can we compete with ants! Any human firm is unstable, since some "worker" will sooner or later begin to weave intrigues and try to take the place of the "queen". With ants, such blasphemy is impossible, since there are certain castes from birth, and all workers are underdeveloped females who will never become queens. Among the ants there are also slave owners, for example, Amazon ants (Polyergos rufescens), stealing the pupae of other ant species. If you are lucky and you meet Amazon ants in the southern part of the Moscow region, be sure to watch them. Their robbery trips to neighboring anthills are a breathtaking sight. The most curious thing is that the slaves who do all the work for the Amazons will never find out about their origin and will not charge the enslavers with racism.
In the animated film "The ant bully" (The ant bully), spiritualized ants demonstrate the miracles of cooperation build living "bridges" and "ladders" to cross the gorge, confer, develop a war strategy. Do you think these are all fairy tales? Some species are really capable of such tricks, for example, wandering ecitonic ants (genus Eciton) are constantly wandering and have to overcome many obstacles. Thousands of ants constructing pontoon bridges from own bodies For some reason I'm not surprised. Now, if we saw such miracles of mutual assistance among people somewhere in the center of Moscow, at rush hour, it would be a sensation. What do you think?
Ants are the most common insects in the world. Among the representatives of this species of arthropods, there are also poisonous ants, whose bite is fatal to humans. Most of them are found in the tropical forests of South and Central America and Southeast Asia, on the African continent and in Australia.
On the European continent and in Russia, there are no ants that are dangerous to humans. However, the bites of red forest ants, common in Russian forests, are dangerous for people suffering from allergic diseases, and in some cases can provoke the development of coma and anaphylactic shock.
The poisonous threat of many species of ants is greatly exaggerated, but there are still several varieties whose bite is very dangerous for humans. Below are several species of these insects, the meeting with which is fraught with disastrous consequences for people:
poisonous ants
Some species are less dangerous to humans, but are also poisonous. Among them:
Russian representatives
But at the slightest danger, these insects turn into a real instrument of torture. Their numerous bites provoke allergic reactions, accompanied by itching, redness and swelling in the affected areas. There are frequent cases of dizziness, nausea and vomiting. Allergy sufferers may develop swelling of the face and throat, and speech impairment. In some cases, anaphylactic shock is noted. Eye burns with formic acid are comparable to chemical ones and are just as dangerous.
To eliminate negative symptoms, antihistamines are used, and ice should be applied to the affected areas.
Ants living in residential premises do not pose a poisonous danger, however, they are real pests and carriers of infectious diseases. They begin their existence from the time of the Egyptian pharaohs, therefore they are sometimes called "pharaonic". These pests can cause a lot of trouble, and it can be quite difficult to exterminate them: people have to invent more and more new means of controlling insects that have developed strong immunity to various insecticides over the years of their existence.
The diversity of the world of insects and the properties attributed to them sometimes inspire people with mystical horror. There are legends about the existence of mutant insects in areas of high radiation, underground and in the laboratories of scientists. It is sometimes difficult to separate truth from fiction, but those who are interested in the diverse world of insects will have to face the mysterious properties of these eternal human companions more than once.
