|
The bullet ant ~ Paraponera clavata is native to the rainforests of Southern Nicaragua and can also be found in Paraguay. They are quite big at around 1 inch long, they are a very dark red-black color and are said to resemble a wasp without wings. This ant has the reputation of being the holder of the worlds worst most painful sting that can be administered by any insect on the planet. The bullet ant gets its name from the fact that a sting from it has been described as identical to the pain and trauma associated with a bullets gunshot wound.
The pain will last for over 24 hours and the natives of Nicaragua actually call this ant the hormiga veinticautro or the 24 hour pain ant ! The bullet ant lives in colonies of several hundred and favors areas at the base of trees to do their foraging. They have an extremely powerful bite for their size and an individual ant can kill other ants and insects quite easily. Of course several hundred bullet ants could kill any insect on the planet, if they were to attack on mass.
The bullet ant is used for initiation rites by the primitive tribes of the tropical rainforests of Paraguay and Nicaragua. Before a teenager can become a man and a warrior he must allow himself to be repeatedly stung by these ants. They do this by making the ant unconscious via the use of a natural chloroform and then weaving their bodies into a large glove with their stings facing inwards.
The recipient then has to put the glove on for ten minutes, the ants wake up and sting the recipients hands hundreds of times. The recipient will have to go through this ordeal of excruciating agony many times over a period of months or even several years, after which the tribe chief will declare him a fully fledged warrior !
Eminent entomologist Justin O Schmidt at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tuscon, Arizona, USA, has created an official index of the pain that various insects can administer. In 1990 he published an index that classifies the stings of 119 of the most common species and types of insect including but not limited to ants, sawflies, wasps, bees and hornets. The scale runs from 1 to 5, whereas 1 is walk in your garden and 5 is a rocket to the moon ! The basis of the list I reproduce here...with easier to understand pain descriptions:
The bullet ant stings are the worst insect stings known to man, with 100% excruciating pain leading to a dizzy nausea, paralysis and unconsciousness due to the agony.
So if you are trekking in those Jungles, beware of this little insect, its sting is like injecting yourself with sulphuric acid ! |
To Natural World
To Links
The
Fire ants sting will make a painful red lump on the skin, and should be
avoided but its only
1.2 on the scale !
The
Bald-Faced hornet can deliver a very painful sting, but its nowhere near
the
worst...
The Tarantula Hawk, means business, it
likes to attack and kill Tarantula spiders, they are big and look very frightening, but unfortunately its sting is
superceded...