Driver Ants

(Laura) Those black lines in the dirt road are not oil drips or cracks but some of the most organized and vicious meat-eaters in the jungle.  Driver ants are a menace to people -- yes, when you inadvertently step on them they will bite the stew out of you, but they also have the very important job of keeping the jungle floor clean.  

We fist came across the Driver Ants walking through ENI during our tour.  Then we saw them again on three other  occasions during our four-hour hike in the Sapo rain Forest. 

At ENI the village kids began pointing and running stomping their feet on our tour.  The lines are not difficult to jump over but when 50 or more village kids stomp their way through the lines of ants it causes problems.  The ants scatter almost faster than you can run, and within seconds they're  up your pants biting bits of your skin off ..... yes, thats correct, Driver Ants are not stingers -- they are meat-eaters!

Army ants would be a better description of these little black terrors.  On closer inspection you can see at the outside of the lines are a row of "sentinel" ants posted to guard the other lines of "worker" ants scurrying in both directions carrying supplies, food or eggs back and forth to a nest.  There are also "scouts" who are out randomly looking for food or anything that might disturb their supply train - like us!  Theses ants don't sting, but rather bite into your flesh and boy does it hurt!  One is enough to make you stop and hunt for what just bit you but rarely do you find only one ant. These ants hunt and eat meat. If you don't look where you are going and manage to step in them they are crafty enough to wait until 50 or so are up your pants before they give an organized "attack" signal. The only defense is to run and stomp and rip off your trousers off - then yank off the ones that have managed to bite into your flesh.  They don't let go easily.

The village kids saw that I was not happy about the ants, so they would run and demonstrate how to cross them while stopping their feet.  One sweet girl would stay with me and pick off the ants that managed to attack my tennis shoes. It was very sweet, and i was very grateful.

(Paul) When our family lived in the Sapo bush 40 years ago our bamboo mat house was repeatedly attacked by waves of Driver Ants.  Dad was vexed, so he followed their winding trail through the bush to an abandoned long-drop toilet hole.  What he found was shocking!  Deep down in the hole was an nest of billions of black Driver Ants. Dad was done with them raiding our house, so he found a 5 gallon jug of gas and poured its to the old long-drop. It sounded like an excellent idea, but that changed quickly when he lit the match.  The second he tossed the match into the hole there was a massive explosion -- Ants were blown 40 feet in the air, dad's eyebrows were singed off and he barely escaped with scalp attached.