In recent years, the red fire ant has flooded the mainland, because it is very toxic, and it will have a burning pain after being bitten by it, and it may also make people unconscious and shocked, and even face life danger. In the 1930s, red fire ants also caused a biological invasion in the United States.
The red fire ant is extremely adaptable, has no predators, and is very fierce in itself, hunting insects, earthworms, frogs, birds, and even small mammals. Attacking the city on American soil, there is no disadvantage, and the native ants have almost disappeared everywhere they go.
They can be seen everywhere in the fields, in the courtyards of houses, not only nibbling on crops and destroying buildings, but also attacking people and animals. It is estimated that the economic losses caused by the red fire ants in the United States are as high as $5 billion each year, and the red fire ants have been ravaging the United States for more than 70 years before finally welcoming their opponents.
The "feud" of the red fire ant
The Americans, tormented by the red fire ants, gritted their teeth and invited another kind of ant from South America, which was small, with slender six legs, a yellow-brown appearance, and an irregular crawling pattern.
Researchers at the University of Texas in the United States documented a battle between two types of ants. Although the yellow ant is one size smaller than the red fire ant, it is not afraid to face the red fire ant, and takes the initiative to attack, wanting to seize the territory of the red fire ant. Red fire ants are used to running amok in the United States, and naturally they are not afraid, spewing venom at the yellow ants.
The yellow ant was drenched in venom, but instead of dying immediately like other ants, it quickly bent its body, pressed the end of its abdomen against its palate, and then rubbed its body repeatedly with its palate. The yellow ant that completed this set of actions seemed to have completely ignored the venom of the red fire ant, and once again rushed up, and strange things happened, the red fire ant fell to the ground, and the poison died!
The scientific name of this yellow ant is called the slender-footed swift ant, because they move irregularly, also known as the yellow mad ant, first found in Africa, with the spread of human trade activities around the world, as early as South America, it has been fighting with the red fire ant for thousands of years, and the two ants are real "feuds". Moreover, the battle between the yellow mad ant and the red fire ant is often the yellow mad ant that has the upper hand, and they are not afraid of the venom of the red fire ant at all, on the contrary, the venom they produce can poison the red fire ant on a large scale.
However, the yellow mad ant can defeat the red fire ant, itself is not a good stubble, it is also listed by the IUCN as one of the world's 100 most destructive invasive species, its degree of harm is even worse than the red fire ant, the United States is in a hurry to go to the doctor, it can be said to lift a stone and drop it on its own feet.
Equally dangerous yellow mad ants
Like the red fire ant, as one of the world's 100 most destructive invasive species, the yellow mad ant can even suppress the red fire ant, what are its hazards? In several villages in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, yellow mad ants have appeared, causing hundreds of people to suffer.
Unlike the red fire ant, the yellow mad ant does not like to bite people, so it is not as notorious as the red fire ant, but the yellow mad ant also has its own unique skill, secreting a kind of formic acid, which is generally not fatal to humans, but may bring allergic reactions. Some of these Indian villagers have blisters directly on his skin because the yellow mad ant crawled over his skin because of the irritation.
The ant acid secreted by the yellow mad ants is more harmful to other animals, and can even blind them when severe, and some of the livestock raised in the village have been attacked by yellow mad ants, and the villagers also claim that the yellow crazy ants will also prey on wild animals such as snakes and rabbits. They would climb up the bodies of these animals in droves and then spit on the formic acid, and after these animals were blinded by poison, they often panicked, consumed a lot of physical strength, and eventually died in the forest, becoming the plate of yellow mad ants.
In addition to eating crops, they will also nibble on the leaves and seeds of many plants, suck their sap, and through collective cooperation, other small insects, spiders, and even larger reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals may become their food, and the impact on ecology is no less than that of red fire ants. And they will also rely on their small size, burrow into the crevices of buildings, run to nibble on wires and electronic components, causing various power equipment to short circuit.
Local villagers in India have been afraid to go near the forest, or even bring water to drink, because as long as the yellow mad ants perceive the water source, they will flock to it, and the number of yellow mad ants is still increasing, and it has spread out of the forest and appeared in some villagers' homes. Experts are also very concerned that the spread of the yellow mad ant will lead to more serious consequences, which is not without precedent.
Ravage Christmas Island and wipe out 50 million red crabs
There is a small island called Christmas Island in Australia, and every year from October to December, there will be a kind of spectacle, 50 million red crabs will run to the sea together, dyeing the ground of the island a bright red, the scene is very spectacular, attracting many tourists to watch. However, the number of red crabs has been even higher in the past, with an estimated 100 million or so.
The culprit that led to their sharp decline in numbers was the yellow mad ants that accompanied the arrival of humans. The yellow mad ant's ant acid will poison the eyes of the red crabs, causing them to find no way forward, and eventually be exposed to the sun until they are dehydrated and die, while the yellow mad ants will carry these red crabs into their nests for food.
Because of the rampant yellow mad ants, in just a few decades, the number of red crabs on the island has been directly halved, and until today, the people on christmas island are still trying to eliminate the yellow mad ants, which shows the great harm of the yellow mad ants.
The yellow mad ant's secret weapon against the red fire ant
Why are the yellow mad ants not afraid of the toxins of the red fire ants? Scientists have found that when the red fire ant sprays venom on the yellow mad ant, the yellow mad ant has a small movement, touching the venom gland at the end of its abdomen with its upper jaw, and then rubbing its whole body with its upper jaw.
The researchers selected two groups of yellow mad ants, one group sealing the mouth of the poisonous gland with nail polish, and the other group only applying nail polish on the side of their bodies. Then the two groups of yellow mad ants were placed on the territory of the red fire ants, and 98% of the yellow mad ants in the group that were not sealed with the mouth of the poisonous gland survived successfully, and the yellow mad ants who were sealed with the mouth of the poisonous gland had a direct chance of survival, and only about half of them survived.
The researchers conducted further research, smearing the toxic glandular secretions of the yellow mad ants on the Argentine ants that originally had no resistance to the red fire ants, and found that the survival rate of these Argentine ants was greatly improved under the attack of the red fire ants. Experiments have shown that the secretions of the yellow mad ant can relieve the toxin of the red fire ant.
But after examining these secretions, the researchers found that there was basically only formic acid inside, which seemed to be no different from other ants, but the secretions of the yellow mad ants could make the toxins of the red fire ants ineffective, and the researchers could only speculate: Perhaps the yellow mad ants in the thousands of years of fighting with the red fire ants, the evolved secretions can make the venom of the red fire ants lose their enzyme activity or directly neutralize the toxicity of the venom.
Moreover, in addition to the acid, the venom of the yellow mad ant also contains a little alkane, and the combination of the two magically becomes the nemesis of the red fire ant, which can easily poison a large number of red fire ants, and where the yellow mad ant appears, the red fire ant also has to retreat. Unfortunately, the yellow mad ants are invasive species like the red fire ants, and although they fight fiercely, the local ecosystem is the last to suffer.
However, in April this year, the United States found a fungus can infect the yellow mad ant, greatly inhibiting the number of yellow mad ants, and will not affect other ants, the Americans have moved the use of this fungus to eliminate the idea of the yellow mad ant, has prepared a large-scale test, this time do not know whether it will be self-defeating again?
Resources
"Ant Forest Battle - The Contest of Red Fire Ants and Yellow Crazy Ants" Sang Ji