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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]
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.
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.
Driver ants, from the genus Dorylus, are found in the Old World, especially West Africa and the Congo Basin. Unlike the army ants of the New World, Old World army ants have a functional sting but rarely use it, preferring their razor-sharp, falcate mandibles for defense instead. Dorylus spp. colonies also reach larger sizes than Eciton.
[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.
“Ants have palates, and if they don’t take the bait immediately, you’ll need to try a different formula,” says Suiter. “It’s not like they’re going to change their minds.”
The bites are not severe for humans, but they do produce an allergic reaction. Their venom is thought to be essentially proteinaceous in composition. [13] Trap-jaw ants do not have similar stingers as bees. Instead, their stings are retractable and not barbed in order to be used again.
Like all ants, they can also make use of visual landmarks when available [134] as well as olfactory and tactile cues to navigate. [135] [136] Some species of ant are able to use the Earth's magnetic field for navigation. [137] The compound eyes of ants have specialised cells that detect polarised light from the Sun, which is used to determine ...