THE DEALDY ANTS – ART OF ATTACK
Many naturalists and animal hunters in Africa have experienced the strange
phenomenon when herds of elephants flee away from ants. Forget lions, Tigers and
Bears. When it comes to the art of attacking, it’s ants that will make you break into a
cold sweat. Armoured tough, with machete jaws, these masterful fighters hack and dice
prey vastly larger than themselves by attacking in numbers beyond easy
comprehension.It all starts with a silent murmur in the area as millions of army ants
march in migration in the forests and their billions of feet drumming a slow deadly music
for all animals, including humans, to get away from their path. A three lane highway of
army ants can stretch for as far as 150yards.
During their ten hour work day, an army ant colony flows across the forest floor catching
thousands of insects and large wounded animals, which cannot run away to
escape. Among humans, the individuals who are at highest risk are very elderly people
and very young children. The only saving factor is, that the broad front of these army
ants seldom exceeds 20metres or 65 feet and if you are out of this width, you can be
safe and it often takes four hours, before these long processions passes any point in
their path. In modern days, some African tribes have found out that, if you soak the
leading column with kerosene/petrol and set fire to them, it diverts the main array.
More than 20 films, based on the murderous march of these ants have been made, with
the first film “Empire of the Ants”, a 1905 short story by H. G. Wells, which was
repeated into a film of the same title in 1977.The story involves an explorer who is
dispatched to South America to investigate reports of giant ants destroying a colony.
It is common for these army ants to reduce a tethered cow to polished bone in some
weeks. A few cases of human death (inebriated or infant) have been reported. The
Siafu army ants on Mount Meru in Tanzania were implicated in the death of a missing
tourist few years ago. Many missionary settlements in the Africa escaped destruction
solely due to the fact, that the width of attacking band of ants was less than 20metres
and the would be victims could run/stay away.
These incredibly dangerous insects can grow from 8mm to 12mm of length. Most of
them are light brown, but some can be reddish. They use formic acid to inject into the
bodies of their victims, wrecking the basic circulatory system of all attacked animals.
It is also considered that army ants are some of the most efficient animals, or insects,
especially in the tropics. They form a giant group made up of millions of soldier
ants. They, then, march killing and devouring anything in their path. If they come to a
large animal, like an entangled cow, the soldiers will gradually start to cover it and when it
is totally covered, they will cut the animal into small pieces without touching the internal
organs, so it gets eaten alive..After the animal has been cut up into tiny pieces, the
worker ants follow a chemical trail to the food and carry it back to the nest. These ants
can carry up to 20times their body weight, (the equivalent of a woman strapping a hippo
to her back) and rest while consuming their great feast
One of the best known army ants is the Burchell’s army ant (named after its discoverer
Burchell), found in central and south America. These species consume so much of the
available prey in a given area that they need to be constantly on the move to find more
food. Recently, Queensland found that it has been invaded by a type of army ants,
probably brought by the cargo ships and the Queensland Department of Primary
Industry says that it will cost more than US dollars 100 million, over the next five years,
to exterminate these ants.
Those animals that could stand a chance against the ants are few. If you ever visit the
tropics, watch out or you will be carried off as their food.
-DR.NAVRAJ SINGH SANDHU , www.navraj@gmail.com