I remember hearing about this in reports from major hurricanes in the South. Sounds pretty horrifying to be stranded on a roof or floating around on your own makeshift raft and then happening upon one of these ant rafts of doom.
Edit: thanks for the nightmares everyone. That'll teach me to read Lemmy right before bedtime.
Fun story - as a kid my backyard in-ground pool would occasionally get these grapefruit sized ant rafts. No idea why or how they would do it, but somehow they'd find themselves floating around in there. And if you don't look too closely it just looks like a dead leaf that landed in the pool.
Dove in one hot summer day. Came up for air. Facefull of ants. Never again.
middle school, 1970's NW Florida... our phys. ed. field would flood out pretty bad whenever it would rain a lot, so on those occasions we'd have a free period to just screw around and socialize. On this particular day, me, a scrawny little bug-eyed ginger kid who got picked on pretty regularly, was being chased by a group of other kids who really wanted to torture me some more. I decided to veer off through the knee-deep flooded PE grounds, which allowed me to escape my tormentors, but also gave me the opportunity to learn first hand that fire ants do indeed float in large masses, and are quite eager to swarm up on the first thing that gets within reach.
33 Comments
Egriaga@lemmy.ml · 54 pts · 43d
Wait shit this isn't a meme.... uhhhhh. Interesting anyways
fossilesque@mander.xyz · 25 pts · 43d
Egriaga@lemmy.ml · 16 pts · 43d
I got a stick to get them to land, and what do they do to repay me! THEY BITE MEE
spinne@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 43d
They do two things: they float in rafts, and they chomp!
gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org · 12 pts · 43d
it is very appreciated whether meme or not.
Hupf@feddit.org · 7 pts · 41d
https://xkcd.com/1610/
Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net MOD · 2 pts · 41d
We'll allow it
Prontomomo@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 43d
These poor fellas are having a worse time than the big bunch
sirimeow@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 43d
The ones with a small leaf boat in the bottom right corner are vibing though
morto@piefed.social · 9 pts · 43d
the crickets at the top seem to be vibing too
sirimeow@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 42d
And the one on some blades of grass with a view of everything
Egriaga@lemmy.ml · 12 pts · 43d
On the bright side the river is lower than when I took this picture, so they might've lived!
CuddlyCassowary@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 43d
Hey guys… wait up!
oce@jlai.lu · 2 pts · 43d
It's une échappée from le peloton.
someguy3@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 43d
Do the bottom ones drown?
Egriaga@lemmy.ml · 22 pts · 43d
They actually take turns so they all get air
howler@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 42d
Amazing
radiouser@crazypeople.online · 15 pts · 42d
With no profit incentive either! What morons!
folekaule@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 43d
I remember hearing about this in reports from major hurricanes in the South. Sounds pretty horrifying to be stranded on a roof or floating around on your own makeshift raft and then happening upon one of these ant rafts of doom.
Edit: thanks for the nightmares everyone. That'll teach me to read Lemmy right before bedtime.
Blooper@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 43d
Fun story - as a kid my backyard in-ground pool would occasionally get these grapefruit sized ant rafts. No idea why or how they would do it, but somehow they'd find themselves floating around in there. And if you don't look too closely it just looks like a dead leaf that landed in the pool.
Dove in one hot summer day. Came up for air. Facefull of ants. Never again.
nomy@lemmy.zip · 18 pts · 43d
My first thought was floating along and brushing up against it, absolutely terrifying.
Egriaga@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 43d
They bit the T A R outta me
tipicaldik@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 43d
middle school, 1970's NW Florida... our phys. ed. field would flood out pretty bad whenever it would rain a lot, so on those occasions we'd have a free period to just screw around and socialize. On this particular day, me, a scrawny little bug-eyed ginger kid who got picked on pretty regularly, was being chased by a group of other kids who really wanted to torture me some more. I decided to veer off through the knee-deep flooded PE grounds, which allowed me to escape my tormentors, but also gave me the opportunity to learn first hand that fire ants do indeed float in large masses, and are quite eager to swarm up on the first thing that gets within reach.
huquad@lemmy.ml · 14 pts · 43d
Can confirm, or if you have to walk in the water. Just one more thing to watch out for. Regular ants are bad enough, fire ants can all go to hell.
JayGray91@piefed.social · 2 pts · 42d
As a kid I slid down a slide once into fire ants
rants_unnecessarily@piefed.social · 11 pts · 42d
Do the bottom ones drown and the top ones just hold them together? Or do they rotate shifts?
psycho_driver@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 42d
Not sure if there's anything special about fire ants but when regular ants build bridges, yeah the bottom ones drown.
Jumi@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 41d
They trap air between their bodies and extremities, that's how they float as well.
rants_unnecessarily@piefed.social · 2 pts · 41d
Oh that makes sense, yeah.
snoons@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 43d
Someane save them, use your arm if you have to!
Natanael@slrpnk.net · 9 pts · 42d
Are you secretly a fireant?
far_university1990@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 42d
Or masochist.
Neptr@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 41d
Not enough fire. Flamethrower those suckers.
orenj@leminal.space · 2 pts · 41d
Ants together strong