At home with the red fire ant - and its many potent relatives

As the invasive ant arrives in Europe, Jonathan Watts recounts his painful encounters with this small creature in its native Latin AmericaI failed to notice the ants at first. Small and pale red, they were barely visible on my sunburned feet as I bumbled around the barbecue in what I wrongly believed then to be "my" Amazonian rainforest garden. But the insects, I was about to learn, had prior ownership and they aggressively made clear I was not welcome on their territory.At first, I felt a barely imperceptible sting, then another, and another until they had my full attention. Like a dull-witted, clumsy Gulliver, I looked down in disbelief to see dozens of the tiny insect Lilliputians swarming up my toes and across the instep. The ants, I observed with a mixture of horror and curiosity, were stopping every few seconds to clamp down and inject venom into the flesh. They appeared to be armed with the repeater rifle of the insect world that gave them an ability to sting multiple times in rapid succession. As more and more joined the attack, the buildup of alkaloid poison turned my skin blotchy and the sensation felt less and less like a pinprick and more and more like a burn. Fascination was now replaced by fear as I hopped back and forth, desperately trying to brush the invaders off of my legs. I had finally realised what I was dealing with: fire ants. Continue reading...