(heavy piano roll) - i'm coyote peterson. this is a mountain of fire ants. i think we all knowwhere this is headed. oh boy, here we go.
how do you get rid of snakes in your house, holy cow, that's alot of stings already. (groans) (fast percussive music) (sighs)
all right, guys. so when i was in arizona you saw me put myhands into a mound of harvester ants, aspecies that both bites and stings. i lasted 60 seconds andtook a lot of venom. (squeals in pain) yeah, got stung already. they're all over myhands now, look at that.
today i'm in south floridaand right in front of me is a giant mound of fire ants. i'm sure you're looking at this pile of dirtthinking to yourselves is that really an ant hill? looks like no one's home. i promise you, thereare thousands of these fiery little antsbeneath the surface. and the second that myhands disturb this dirt
i'm going to be swarmed bythese ornery little insects. am i excited about this? not really. am i curious aboutwhat's going to happen? of course, and i knowyou guys are too. i think at this pointi am ready to enter the strike zonewith the fire ant. the red imported fire antis native to south america. yet they have establishedpopulations in several places
across the united states,including florida. what makes these insects sodangerous is that their mounds camouflage into the environment, resembling nothing morethan a pile of dirt. stumble into one, andbefore you even realize what you have done, youare caught in the swarm. now just like theharvester ant, the fire ant can bite and it can also sting. and they say that thesting of a fire ant
feels like putting yourhands into a ring of fire. now before i actuallygo through with this, here's a little somethingwe all should know. the sting of this ant speciespossesses an alkaloid venom known as solenopsin,which exhibits a potent necro-toxic reactionin any one who's stung. this not only causessearing pain but also causes the sting zones to swell andform unsightly white pustulates in as little as 12 hours.
in short, this isone nasty sting, and boy am i about to getmy fair share of them. you build yourselfup for these moments, and then you secondguess yourself. we've done a couple ofpractice dry runs at it just as rehearsal as to wherei'm going to put my hands. when they go in there, i'mgoing to be able to do this one time. i'm going to try to keep myhands in there for 60 seconds.
my heart is racing right now. hopefully my body reactsokay to the venom. i don't want to go intoanaphylactic shock or anything. i did okay wit theharvester ants, so i think i'm going to be okay. all right, here we go, ready. okay, go get in position,i'll be there in a second. - [voiceover] all right, man. (ominous music)
- never, under anycircumstances, try to replicate what you are about towitness in this video. i'm coyote peterson and i'mabout to enter the strike zone with a fire ant. you guys ready? your shot good?- [cameraman] yup. - one, two, three. (light, percussive rattle) holy cow.
ow, ow, ow, ooh! (pained in and out breaths) holy cow, that's alot of stings already. (suppressed groan) okay, i'm going tohave take my hands out pretty quickly, guys. (pained grunts) so much worse thanthe harvester ants. (pained groans)
- [voiceover] 30 seconds (heavy, fast breaths) - i cant, i can't, i gotta stop. i gotta stop, i gotta stop. (timer buzzes) - [voiceover] you all right? how are you, tell mewhat you're feeling? - a lot of pain. they're still on me.
(pained groan) my hands are on fire right now. it is worse thanthe harvester ants. there's no question about it. (groans, breathes quickly) - [voiceover] what's goingthrough your mind right now? - my hands feel likethey're swelling right now. i feel like i'mstill getting stung. (light groan)
be one with the pain. look at my veinsare all swelling up. when a mound of fireants is disturbed, thousands of them instantlyswarm the invader. the attack comes from all sides. and as the ants bite and holddown with their mandibles they use a stinger in theirabdomen to inject the venom. (deep groan) i was hoping to last 60 seconds.
however, my pain tolerancefinally gave out, as my brain wasscreaming, "get your hands out of that ant mound." all right, so, it'sbeen about five minutes since i had my handsin the ant mound. as you can see, they'restarting to swell up. there's a bunch of littlewhite lumps all over them. it's actually not toobad at this point. it hurts less than it does itch.
i really want to itchmy hands right now, and i know that ishouldn't, because if i do it's onlygoing to make it worse. now, if you wantto know the answer of which is worse,the harvester ant or the fire ant, ithink the pain was worse with the harvester ant,but obviously the swarm was more impressivewith the fire ant. this is much worse thanthe harvester ants.
the moment those antswere covering my hands, i was immediately getting stung over and over and overagain, and it did feel like putting my handsinto a ring of fire. here we come. (groans) i think no matter what,at the end of the day the lesson we're alltaking away from this is that if you're out innature, and you're exploring, always do your best to avoidany and all ant mounds.
i'm coyote peterson,be brave, stay wild. we'll see you onthe next adventure. in total i sustainedover 300 stings and for over a weeki suffered through incredible discomfort,which included flashes of pain, andcontinuous itching. it took over 30 daysfor the pustulates to completely diminish, and they left behind a trail ofscars, that today serve
as a constant reminderof why you never want to tangle with fire ants. nearly all the ant attackson humans happen by accident. pay attention towhere you step or sit, and you hopefully will notend up looking like me. do you know the simplestremedy for neutralizing ant stings in the field? if not, make sureto click watch next for when totally grossbehind the adventure.
and don't forget, subscribeto join me and the crew on this season ofbreaking trail.
(light, playful music) well, i think it's safeto say that i'm done with ants for a while. (wild animal sounds)
