Anyone who’s had a wasp sink its weapon into their flesh will know that it’s a pretty unpleasant experience. Not one that you’d want to repeat in a hurry. But compared to the bullet ant, a wasp sting is like stroking a kitten whilst sitting in a Jacuzzi. The bullet ant is not just on the next level of pain, it’s a few Universes down the road, turn left and head straight to Hades. It’s 30 times as painful as a wasp’s sting by some reckonings.
The Bullet ant (Paraponera clavata), is also known confusingly as the lesser giant hunting ant and the conga ant. The nickname ‘bullet ant’ stems from the sensation of its sting i.e. it’s like being shot. Bullet ants can be up to 3cm long which, although fairly big for an ant, isn’t exactly massive. But what they lack in size they make up for in fire power.
Bullet ants are found in low lying rain forests from Nicaragua to Honduras and down to Paraguay.
According to the Schmidt sting index it has the most painful sting of all Hymenoptra, a large group that includes wasps, bees and ants. Its sting even beats the fearsome tarantula hawk wasp into second place. Schmidt’s sting index is a catalogue of 78 species’ stings, most of which Schmidt tested on himself. This fearsome ant gets a 4+ which is the highest rating and a standard wasp gets a humble 2. Of the bullet ant sting he said the following:
Paraponera clavata stings induced immediate, excruciating pain and numbness to pencil-point pressure, as well as trembling in the form of a totally uncontrollable urge to shake the affected part.
The pain is reported to last for 24 hours without really chilling out at any point. For this reason the locals refer to the ant as hormiga veinticuatro meaning the 24-hour ant. The bullet ant’s searing sting is injected into the victim via a hyperdermic style lance that retracts into their abdominal tip.
The Setare-Mawe people of Brazil use these ants as part of their warrior initiation ritual. They sedate a number of ants and then weave them into a pair of wicker gloves that look like oven mitts, with their stingers facing inwards. Once the ants have awoken the wannabe warrior has to wear them for a full 10 minutes. That sounds hideous enough, but the poor child has to go through the ordeal 20 times over a few months or years to be fully initiated.
According to witnesses the boys hands can shake uncontrolably for days after the procedure. You know what? I’d probably give it a miss. I don’t fancy being a warrior much any way, I’m too tired.
Recently an Australian idiot gave the bullet ant gloves a try. The gloves were on for just a second but the pain was intense and he ended up in hospital. Maybe that’ll teach him a lesson? The video of that incident and some stuff about the neurotoxin that produces this trauma on the next page…
The bullet ant produces a neurotoxic peptide called Poneratoxin. This poison effects voltage-dependendent sodium ion channels and synaptic transmission in the central nervous system. It causes a slow and long lasting contraction of smooth muscles in mammals and blocks signal transduction. In insects the bite shuts down the central nervous system all together, but humans can take quite a bit more before it becomes fatal. Apparently 30 bites per Kilo will do it.
So here’s a clip taken from the Australian TV show Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year. I’d not heard of the show before, but what I’ve learned from this clip is that I won’t be wearing any gloves with bullet ants woven into them any time soon. I suggest you take note:
Yup, so that looked pretty bad didn’t it? Oh, and they bite too. Nasty things. In the jungle the ants do come in handy though, they can be used to suture wounds. They get the ant to bite the wound on either side, they then snap its body off and the pincers remain in position. The ants saliva helps hermetically seal the wound. So they’re not all bad after all.
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