Hopefully, you haven’t been shot for real.
But if you did experience having a gunshot wound before, then you know why you need to steer clear of the so-called bullet ant. Fortunately, that’s easy to do as long as you’re not in Central and South America, specifically in the humid forests that these little beasts call home.
Watch the video of a bullet ant below.
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Video credit: Rumble
They hunt for insects and plant nectar and go as high as the forest canopies in order to search for food. Bullet ants are aggressively territorial and won’t hesitate to attack in order to protect their nests. Larger animals don’t intimidate them so don’t make the mistake of trying to pound your feet or hands on the ground to make them scatter.
But it’s not their aggressiveness that should make anyone pause but their sting which ranks as a 4 on the Schmidt Pain Scale, the highest that’s possible. The pain is comparable to that of a bullet wound which makes the name of the bullet ant quite apt.
Aside from causing excruciating pain, the venom in the bullet ant’s bite also causes numbness, nausea, and respiratory difficulty. In fact, many warriors in the various South American tribes use the bullet ant’s sting as a rite of passage.
In this particular video, the encounter with the bullet ant happened during a night hike in the Amazon rainforest. An experienced guide named Anna was guiding a group of nature enthusiasts through the rainforest in a small Ecuadorian village near Sacha Lodge. The one-inch bullet ant had just captured a much larger inchworm and was carrying its prize back home.
Anyone who encounters bullet ants is well-advised to avoid them. Their bites can require medical attention which can be difficult if one is deep in the jungle. Colonies often hold up to 70 ants so woe to the hapless intruder who stumbles upon their nest!
Researchers are currently studying the venom of the bullet ant for possible applications in medicine. This is just one example of how complex nature can be. Something that can cause great harm in humans could actually be the critical ingredient to cure certain ailments.
This is why it is sheer folly to disregard the delicate balance in nature and just destroy things without thinking about them. We could be throwing away the very thing that could save us down the road!
Replaced!