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Stinging ants cause a cutaneous condition that is different from that caused by biting venomous ants. Particularly painful are stings from fire ants, although the bullet ant's sting is considered by some to be the most painful insect sting. [3]: 450 First aid for fire ant bites includes external treatments and oral medicines. [citation needed]
The ants quickly respond to alarm pheromones that are released by the first disturbed ants, causing a swarm followed by aggressive stinging. Fire ant stings are typically accompanied by burning and urticaria, followed by a welt formation. The welts often develop into white pustules that should not be scratched, as to avoid secondary infections.
The stings of the red imported fire ant in animals are painful, and may prove life-threatening. [70] In dogs, stings from the red imported fire ant can cause pustular dermatosis, a condition where pustules appear in crops as a result of the ant sting. [71] After getting stung, the immediate response consists of erythema and swelling.
In ants that bite instead of sting, such as the Formicinae, the bite causes the wound, but during the bite the abdomen bends forward to spray formic acid into the wound, causing additional pain. In arachnids that sting (all largely scorpions), the stinger is not a modified ovipositor, but instead a metasoma that bears a telson. [18]
Fire ants often attack small animals such as small lizards and can kill them. Unlike many other ants, which bite and then spray acid on the wound, fire ants bite only to get a grip and then sting (from the abdomen) and inject a toxic alkaloid venom called solenopsin, a compound from the class of piperidines.
· Carpenter ants vary in size from ¼ to 1/2 inch; they do not eat wood like termites, but they will excavate damp wood in your house to create galleries where they nest.
[227] [228] Unlike in honeybees, the sting lacks barbs, and so the stinger is not left in the area the ant has stung, allowing the ants to sting repeatedly without any harm to themselves. [229] The retractable sting is located in their abdomen, attached to a single venom gland connected by the venom sac, which is where the venom is accumulated.
The sting of a bullet ant has been compared to being shot with a firearm, and is said to be the most painful of any insect bite. ‘Naked and Afraid’ contestants suffer world's most painful ...