Why Fire Ants are Amazing

I am now convinced that fire ants are. the most amazing creatures on earth and. they must die. Let's talk about that. This is Greg and Ian from Detroit, Michigan running the turkey track. Good. mythical morning. [Music]. Good mythical morning. This episode is. brought to you by Culas, the guys with. the goods. Goods like the electric. lantern lamp. Is it a lamp? Is it a.

lantern? Well, it's sort of both. If. you're into that kind of thing, which I. am, I'm going to go camping with this, but I need a generator. No, it's for rustic office environments. or lodges or things like that. If you. fit your decor, go for it. Good. Good morning. Thanks for. I'll call you back. So, what have you had somebody You've. had a fake person on hold. Boy, that was. great. I'm glad it was. I kept my head turned this way just for. that joke. Yep. So I could be like quite a payoff.

to that one. I'm going to start doing. that every episode. I cannot say that. I've been doing. research but I have been watching uh. movies and one of which was about fire. ants and that's what I want to talk. about today. I think there's opportunity. for us to learn things, for us to be in. awe of nature, and there may even be an. application for us creatively. Well, interesting by the end of this. whole thing. Interestingly enough, uh this past. weekend as I was a flipping through the.

Netflix, I saw this documentary you're. talking about. They said fire ants. I. was like, I should watch that. It's called Fire Ants. No, no more, no. less. But now I don't have to watch it because. just sitting here with you talking about. it is like watching it. Well, if you want to watch it, link will. be in the description. sounded weird. Yeah, especially because you didn't say. alink, but it will be in the description if you. want to watch it. But anyway, so yeah, I. mean it's I wanted to watch something. with Lincoln because Lily had a friend. over and they were watching like Barbie. movies in the other room and I was like, "Oh, we can do some man bonding over.

like some. Barbie movies.". Yeah, that Barbie has a movie. They have Oh, yeah. Like whole series of. movies. And you let your daughter watch that? Well, yeah. You reinforce that kind of the the the. way that they portray women. Well, she's. a great actress. Body image and that kind of thing. She can she can be like a mermaid or she. can be she can be but yeah, they're all. in terms of body image. She's pretty. pretty much always Barbie. Let's not go there. That's another point. That's another. episode. My point is I had to click on. the fire ants now because I have a.

personal connection to fire ants. Now, if you don't know what fire ants are, you didn't grow up in the south or you. didn't grow up in South America or. Africa. You grew up somewhere that has a. colder climate. But if you're walking. around barefooted in your yard in the. summertime and you're in one of these. warm places like where we're from, all. of a sudden you'll come upon a pa place. in your grass that wasn't there. yesterday and all of a sudden it looks. like freshly tilled earth like a mound. Like could this be a groundhog under. there or some sort of underear creature?

No, it is a fire ant mound. And if you. disturb that thing, Rhett, tell them. what happened. Well, I don't disturb. them as a policy, but if you step upon. this, all the little fire ants will come. out and they will attack you if you poke. it with a stick. Same thing. Any if you disturbed it any they they. had this reaction. They're like, "Kill. the human. Kill the human." And they. come up and they bite and they claw and. they sting. And this has happened to. many people in the south. One of my. mom's earliest memories is falling off a. swing into a fire ant hill and nearly.

dying. Yeah. Yeah. These things. She didn't nearly die, but you could. nearly die. No, there are a few reported. cases of fire ants killing people. because I mean they're called fire ants. because they bite you. There is venom in. their in their fang fangules. I I don't. think they're called and uh it's just. it's just dangerous. My papa stepped it. stepped in one and they engulfed his. whole left leg and bit him all over the. place and he swole up like a. hippopotamus. It was like he was. dragging a hippopotamus but it was his. leg.

It's crazy. So I I wanted I wanted to. educate Lincoln about this. He's already. in fear of them, but at least, you know, he could have knowledge, which maybe. defer the fear. Couple of things that I. learned right off the bat is these. things, they came from uh Argentina to. North America. They are not native. species and they just take over here. They're invasive. They take over and they don't just go. underground. They fly. The queen flies to a different place. Yeah, they do. I saw it. I saw the wings. and everything. But these fire ants do amazing things.

They start at one point they said okay. they showed water rising and they said. okay if there's a flood the fire ants. have to have to leave their mound and. escape so that they don't drown and they. have to search for higher ground. If. they don't find higher ground people. these fire ants glom together and form a. raft made out of nothing but themselves. And there's footage of this. There is footage of this. They make it's. just a glob of fire ants floating on top.

of water and it's not a ball. It's they. make a a certain level of thickness of a. of a raft and then there's ones on the. bottom swimming and then they put all. the babies and the larvae and the queen. on top and they're crawling around on. top and they just go around and go. around. They could go around for weeks. Oh, but what about the dudes on the. bottom? Are they dying? That No, they're not dying. They're. moving around and. it's like a rotation. It's like. volleyball. They didn't really. I got another 15 seconds, George. And. tap out and the other one comes down.

They're just smart. They keep in their. head. They are so smart. But the fact is. they're not smart. They just all know. their roles. They're like bees. They're collectively smart. They're collectively smart. Like. like me and you. Like bees have their roles and stuff. like that. Alone we're very stupid, but together. we're almost as smart as a smart person. If we grab onto each other with every. appendage, which let's not do that, and and swim, we would float. You get the bottom. if if we were ants. And it's amazing. Me and the babies are on top. They did. these they did these experiments where.

they would take one ant away at a time. and the ants would immediately. redistribute themselves to stay the. proper amount of buoyant and then the. the scientists would take the raft and. they would push down on the middle and. it would just it would just go down in. the middle and it was as if it was. reacting like Kevlar or some sort of. fabric that would just go and if you. push it too far the whole thing will go. underwater and the raft will submerge. whoop around on itself become a ball. trap. tap air in the middle of it and. enough air that it will not they will.

not drown. It'll. not they will not drown. You drowned. It's drown. Drown. That's what I said. It will not. drown. So these and then if you let it. go, the the bubble comes out and then it. goes back up to the top. How amazing is. that? For weeks they could do that. This this is all special effects. And. then they finally find land and then. they start crawling off and they take. the babies off and they make a new nest. for for for a little bit of time. These. things cannot be eradicated.

Yeah. I mean. until scientists say, you know, they did. all these things. They came over in like. the 30s and then in the 70s they did all. this. Just put corn flakes out there. They did all that. Yeah. Put some frosty mini wheats out. You. know, in the south there's all kinds of. like put some frosty mini wheats out. there and you'll kill them all. Have you heard that actually? Because. I've heard rice. You got some corn pops. throw some corn. pops on there. You It'll take about 48. hours and you kill every one of them. That I don't or rice. That doesn't work. I don't think um.

Lewis, my mom's husband, he says the. only way to kill them is to put fire on. them. Is to burn them. Burn them out. That's why they call them fire ants. You'll see. Yeah. He doesn't talk like. either one of us just did, but he'll. take a blowtorrch out. You see him in. his front yard. Not with a weed whacker. or like, "Oh, is he doing lawn work?". No. He's like got a full blow torch. a welder. burning these things out. But. that probably kills them. That kills them. But science I think a. lot of them go so deep that I'm sure.

that doesn't kill them. Course they could be underground like. forming some like fake water fountain. thing that's repelling the fire cuz. they're so smart. You don't know what's. going on under there. Well, they I'm not going to deny that. that could happen. But scientists have. found the silver bullet. That the reason why these things don't. go nuts in Argentina or in South Africa. or or places like that is because there. is a fly, a forehead fly. There's many. different species that only attack fire. ants. The forehead fly.

Forid P H O R I D. But let's just call. it the forehead fly. F O R E H E A D. Unprotected so you can remember it. Listen to how these things eradicate. fire ants. That first of all, they're. like 1/8 the size of a of of a of an. ant. And they're like going around and. they don't look for the little worker. ants. They look for the female ants and. they wait for the female ant to come out. and then boom, they hit that thing. Boom. They hit that thing. Boom. They. hit that thing.

They sting it. I'm just saying they. sting it, but they Well, they lay an egg. in it. So, you know what I'm saying? Hold on. They lay an egg, a forid fly. egg in a living ant. in the female. In the female. So this is a female forwardfly laying an. egg. Yes. And it does not kill the ant. The. ant lives on. Goes about its business. until one day. This is so nasty. Till one day the forehead egg decides to. hatch.

It goes up into the head of the ant. Hatches. Decapitates the ant. That means. take the head off the end. And then the first meal of this. foreheadly larvae is to eat the brains. and inner workings of the head of the. firefly. Don't be grossed out. Be like, "Yeah, that's right. They attacked your mom when she was a. kid, man. You should be like, "Yeah, forehead flies.". Yeah, you're right. Give me some of that. Eating the inside brains of a fire ant. And so then once that then once the.

You're not going to be making any more. raphs. I'm going to eat your brains. They're like the zombie. And then the queen zombies. the queen. dies and then the the colony dies. The. colony doesn't know what to do without a. queen. Yeah. It's like the British. And what you can do is there's certain. certain places in South Texas where it's. too too hot for the for flies to live. You can take if you live in South Texas, which you don't, but let's just say you. did. I've been through there. Take your. fire ants in a box. Take them up to. North Texas. Let the Ford flies because. they they're up there now where they're. helping to eradicate fire ants. Let them.

impregnate the bodies of the of the fire. ants. Then bring your fire ants back. down and it'll kill them. Is there footage of this impregnation. process? It's just it's just like bam. It's just. like what I said. It's just that quick. It's that it doesn't take long. It's. amazing. And they must die. Um what now? What can you and I learn from this? Well, I was hoping you would have that. application by the end of this thing. Well, I I just think we should we should. hold hands wherever we go. and float. And we we should we should.

hold hands wherever we go and be. prepared for anything. I I won't even think about that. No. thanks. They know how to pull with just the. right amount of pressure so that they. don't pull each other's limbs off. They will let go before they break each. other's limbs. If I can do that. No, but. if you let go, I No, I would know when. to let go. Like, let go. You're about I. mean, you're not about to break. Link turns into a cow.

Oh, something's happen. This makes this makes a lot of sense. What? Hold on. Something. something's. wrong. I think I'm turn turning into a. cow. [Laughter]. I'd love to just decapitate you and eat. your brains right now, but I'm not a. I'm not a tit fly.

for it fly. and you're not a fire. [Music].