Fire Ant Apocalypse!

by Robert Wilkinson

By now many of you know we’re having a fire ant apocalypse on the Gulf Coast of America. That reminded me of a famous short story.

The story of the Gulf Coast residents being overrun by masses of floating fire ants was reported in the story A terrifying threat from Tropical Storm Cindy: Floating masses of deadly fire ants where we read that:

The notoriously tough insects are just as dangerous when they’re wet as they are dry, according to Alabama officials, who are warning residents to keep their eyes peeled for floating mounds of fire ants.

”Floodwaters will not kill fire ants,” the warning states. “Instead their colonies will emerge from the soil, form a loose ball, float and flow with the water until reaching a dry area or object.”

“Floating colonies can look like ribbons, streamers or a ball of ants floating on the water,” the warning adds. “These amoeba-like masses contain all of the colonies’ members — worker ants, brood (eggs, larvae, pupae), winged reproductive males and females, and queen ants.”

And later we read that

“Fire ant stings usually occur on the feet or legs after accidentally stepping on a fire ant mound,” the college states. “It is important to be aware that during the summer, fire ants obtain the largest amount of venom and therefore the stings are largest and most painful. If you are in a rowboat, do not touch the ants with oars.”

Alabama officials say fire ants present a nasty foe for people moving through floodwaters. The ants can climb onto boats and oars and — after biting someone’s skin — will cling to a person’s body part even if it’s submerged in water. Alabama officials are urging residents to wear gloves, long-sleeved shirts, long pants, socks and shoes and consider spraying insect repellent on their clothes….

Floating islands of red fire ants have been documented by photographers recently… The South Carolina station recorded video of a fire ant raft during a flood in 2015. The phenomenon was also documented the same year during flooding in Texas, which has long battled a severe fire ant problem.

Kelly Loftin, an extension entomologist and professor at the University of Arkansas, told The Washington Post that fire ant rafts exist and he’s seen them during flooding in Arkansas.

As water levels in a flood rise, Loftin said, the ants will seek the highest ground possible before starting to cling together with their legs and feet, forming a raft that insects eventually tip into the water. The rafts can form in as little as an hour, he said.

So the Gulf Coast is dealing with thousands of large and small floating rafts and balls of fire ants that will jump on anything they touch and begin stinging! I lived in Texas for almost 30 years, and I can promise you their sting is like being touched with a hot poker! They can and do kill small animals, and their sting seriously hurts.

Anyway, it got me to thinking about one of the most famous short stories in history, “Leiningen Versus the Ants,” written by Carl Stephenson. I read it when I was much younger, and was quite impressed by the idea of a 2 mile wide and 10 mile long swath of army ants stripping foliage and swarming creatures on a march that could not be stopped, except for the efforts of one man. You can read about this famous work in Wikipedia at Leiningen Versus the Ants - wikipedia but spoiler alert! If you don’t want to know the ending, don’t go to this entry just yet. This story was also made into the 1954 Charlton Heston movie The Naked Jungle

Anyway, in the interests of furthering your literary inclinations, on this Sunday I was moved to find you this classic of literature, and here it is as one file! It’s around 8700 words, which is about 20 pages. It’s an easy read, and riveting once you begin to get pulled into the enormity of one man trying to stop 20 square miles of army ants.

The Brazilian official threw up lean and lanky arms and clawed the air with wildly distended fingers. "Leiningen!" he shouted. "You're insane! They're not creatures you can fight--they're an elemental--an 'act of God!' Ten miles long, two miles wide--ants, nothing but ants! And every single one of them a fiend from hell; before you can spit three times they'll eat a full-grown buffalo to the bones. I tell you if you don't clear out at once there'll he nothing left of you but a skeleton picked as clean as your own plantation."

For your enjoyment, Leiningen And The Ants