Fire Ants
The fire ant Solenopsis invicta is a species that is expanding in range around the world and is most often involved in medical emergencies. The species is aggressive and has a painful sting. A person typically encounters fire ants by inadvertently stepping into one of their mounds, which causes the ants to swarm up the person's legs, attacking en masse. The ants respond to pheromones that are released by the first ant to attack. The ants then swarm and immediately sting when any movement is sensed. People who are sensitive to the venom can die of anaphylaxis. In a survey of 29,300 physicians in the United States of America (in 1989), reports of 83 fatalities were obtained. Some fire ant attacks on humans confined to beds have also been noted it has been noted that fire ants can be a particular threat in medical facilities in some locations since they can have nesting colonies inside human habitations.
Read more about this topic: Ants Of Medical Importance
Famous quotes containing the words fire and/or ants:
“The tender skin does not shrink from bayonets, the timid woman is not scared by fagots; the rack is not frightful, nor the rope ignominious. The poor Puritan, Antony Parsons, at the stake, tied straw on his head when the fire approached him, and said, “This is God’s hat.””
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The country of the tourist pamphlet always is another country, an embarrassing abstraction of the desirable that, thank God, does not exist on this planet, where there are always ants and bad smells and empty Coca-Cola bottles to keep the grubby finger- print of reality upon the beautiful.”
—Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923)