African driver ants are exceedingly unpleasant little creatures.

[BreweryYardRat]

Interesting? Sure. Fascinating, in that they can build bridges of ants to send raiding parties over still bodies of water and also bring pebbles to act as traction for fellow colony members trapped in slug slime? Yes. Useful for their tendency to eat vermin like cockroaches? No question.

Unpleasant, just the same. I was watching a show about them on the Discovery Channel the other night. A large group of driver ants encountered a freshwater crab on the bank of a stream. Despite its armor being too tough to get through, they eventually figured out a way to defeat it. They gnawed through the softer chitin at the joints until they could get at the tissue inside, had soldier ants pry its mouth open, ate the crab's eyestalks, then swarmed inside through the various openings and chopped up the crab from the inside out, while it was still alive, prior to carrying the meat back to the colony.

Smart little things.

And yes, this was inspired by the killer-whale post.

[mainegreen]

1. Thats all fine and good until the crab turns into a zombie.

Then those little ants wont know what hit them!

[usaftmo]

2. I taped that show but haven't seen it yet.

Considering whether I should let my 7 year old son watch this... :shrug:

[BreweryYardRat]

4. Mmm...

Well, while a family of hornbills is threatened at one point, they're not eaten. They're the only non-arthropods in the show to even be at risk. However, I'm not sure a 7-year-old should see the ants attacking even other arthropods. It's pretty unpleasant.

Wait until he's 10 or so.

[usaftmo]

8. Survey says...off limits to a 7 year old!

This decision also helps with ex-wifey. After he's with me for the weekend, she interrogates him about everything little thing that happens while he's with me.

This way I won't be giving her any ammo. Just before the show on those ants was a generic show on different kinds of ants. Hopefully that one will be suitable.

My son really likes the show dirty jobs! Today we watched Mike getting bloodworms from the mud. Yummy!

[EstimatedProphet]

3. The power of superior numbers is amazing, isn't it?

[leftofthedial]

5. sounds like nazi-repuke theocrats

devouring the US government

[KT2000]

6. I find ants fascinating

Have some thatching ants in my yard that are really fun to watch.
Their bite is pretty bad though.

[Deja Q]

7. GAAAH! And I thought humans were cruel! Now where's my can of Raid?

[fudge stripe cookays]

9. Ever seen the movie "The Naked Jungle?"

Charlton Heston and Eleanor Parker from the 1950s. He's a big plantation owner in South America who sends for a mail order bride.

When the initial drama is over with, army ants begin attacking from the surrounding jungles, and the movie is all about their attempts to defeat the ants.

This movie scared the shit out of me because I HATE ants. HATE them. The worst part-- they tried flooding the area around the plantation to keep them out so the ants ate through the stems of leaves, and got on the leaves to float across the water.

They eventually had to start fires around the plantation and burn just about everything in it to keep them out.

Phew!

[BreweryYardRat]

10. I've read the short story it was based on.

Quite a good one, by the way.