Giant Ant biting me, ouch!

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orionmystery
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Giant Ant biting me, ouch!

Post by orionmystery »

I saw this Camponotus sp. ant on a tree trunk so I thought I'd take a few shots of her.
ImageCarpenter Ant biting me IMG_0904 copy by Kurt (orionmystery.blogspot.com), on Flickr

After just a couple of shots, I felt a sharp pain on my left wrist! It was another ant - biting me!
ImageCarpenter Ant biting me IMG_0914 copy by Kurt (orionmystery.blogspot.com), on Flickr

Luckily, she was biting me on my left wrist, at a spot I could reach/photograph. Whew!
ImageCarpenter Ant biting me IMG_0920 copy by Kurt (orionmystery.blogspot.com), on Flickr

The bite wasn't really that painful.
ImageCarpenter Ant biting me IMG_0925 copy by Kurt (orionmystery.blogspot.com), on Flickr

More tropical ants: http://orionmystery.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... -ants.html
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: Giant Ant biting me, ouch!

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Camponotus gigas is one of the world's biggest ant species, and here in Borneo you can find them 24/7 in every forest, virgin or disturbed. I always get a kick out of pointing them out to first-time visitors to the tropics. You can always see the same sequence of feelings playing on their faces: incredulity ("this must be a prank, there are no beetle-sized ants on this planet"), slow, drop-by-drop understanding ("shit, this IS an ant. No, wait, that can't be. But it IS! My word, what a HUGE ANT! "), and then, last, but certainly not least, when the surprise has worn off: raw fear ("Do they bite? Actually, I don't want to know. Let's just go somewhere else, and fast!")

Having said that, and having encountered what feels like thousands of these guys over the past three years, and having many of them run over my hands, arms, and feet, I have never been bitten once. They're very nervous, but also really very harmless.

So.....what did you do to the poor thing that got his knickers in such a twist that she would actually bite you???

PS: Stellar pictures....but that's a redundant comment :-)
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BillMcGighan
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Re: Giant Ant biting me, ouch!

Post by BillMcGighan »

My gosh, because of this post I tried to get better perspective. I read where soldiers get up to 28.1 mm, over 1 " for the metrically challenged!



(of course, I convinced my wife that 28 mm is 3 inches!)
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: Giant Ant biting me, ouch!

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

BillMcGighan wrote:(of course, I convinced my wife that 28 mm is 3 inches!)
You bad, bad man! Pranking on those in the dark! :D
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orionmystery
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Re: Giant Ant biting me, ouch!

Post by orionmystery »

LOL...thanks, Bill, Hans.

Yep, Camponotus ants are totally not aggressive. I must have provoked that one while trying to photograph the first one. Both of them, and a few more, were on the same tree at that time.
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