Thousands of fire ants are forming rafts out of…
This military is in formation.
Thousands of fire ants have been noticed floating on floodwaters through the Texas metropolis and forming rafts utilizing their our bodies with residents now reporting the gross conduct.
KXAN Austin took to X to post a video taken by Austinite David Todd of the little critters, seen nestled into a massive cluster in the waters of Lake Travis.
X customers weighed in on the scary sight.
“A floating ball of pure hate,” one noticed.
“I’ve done more than seen them. I’ve run into them at night wading out to the ramp on my dock when the lake is rapidly rising,” one other wrote. “Sucks.”
“Bring out the torch,” another person advised.
Fire ants are forming rafts out of their own our bodies in Texas floodwaters. KXAN
The pesky bugs, which may trigger painful stings, are rife in Texas. But when their underground nests flood, they sink their tooth into each different, interlock their limbs and create rafts to keep alive.
“It’s called a self-organizing or self-assembling process. And it’s something only social insects do,” Ed LeBrun, a analysis scientist at the University of Texas’ Brackenridge Field Lab, instructed the outlet.
“There are a lot of other structures that ants make in a similar way. For example, army ants will make bridges across rivers.”
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