NARRATOR: The Australian bull-ant is the official record-holder for the most dangerous ant in the world. MICHELLE OAKLEY (VOICEOVER): I was wrestling a kangaroo, and it turned out I was laying in a bull-ant nest. It’s OK, baby. MICHELLE OAKLEY (VOICEOVER): When I got in the car, there was still one hanging on. First, it kind of got me on my back, and then I could feel it moving. I was honestly more terrified that it was a spider. MICHELLE OAKLEY (VOICEOVER): But as it slid down my back, I realized it was biting me in a very tender spot. [gasps] Ah, ah! Something’s biting me. – Oh, you’ve got a bull-ant. – [bleep] – Can I see– – [bleep] [inaudible] you? I don’t know. MICHELLE OAKLEY (VOICEOVER): On my butt, something is stinging me. Ow, that hurts. MICHELLE OAKLEY (VOICEOVER): And it just feels like pain. She might have a bull-ant in her pants. MICHELLE OAKLEY: Ugh. Ow. NARRATOR: The bull-ant can bite you with its large mandibles, but the pain really comes when it injects venom through a stinger on its rear end. It was incredibly painful, like the kind of pain where you’re just sweating and just waiting for it to stop. It was awful. It took hours for that pain and that burning to go away. NARRATOR: Bull-ants earned their name because of their aggression and determination during an attack. However– MICHELLE OAKLEY: The bull-ant is not after us. It’s not trying to bite us on the butt or get in our pants. What it’s trying to do is attack other insects, and so that repeated stinging, what it does is release enzymes into these insects, which will destroy their blood cells and kill the animal. NARRATOR: Because it’s a relatively big ant, the bull-ant injects a lot of poison. And unlike bees, it can deliver multiple stings to a human and not die in the process. Bull-ants can vary in size, but they still pack the same punch. I mean, some are as small as a fingernail and some are as big as an inch. No matter what their size, they’re going to hang on and they’re going to sting you repeatedly. NARRATOR: A handful of people have died from the bull-ant. MICHELLE OAKLEY: One bull-ant sting is awful. It’s going to be painful. If you’re bit by multiple bull-ants, it definitely could set off anaphylaxis and it could be deadly. NARRATOR: In Australia, the bull-ant is the most common species of ant to require a trip to the hospital. When human beings are gone from this planet, ants are going to rule the world.
