If you think leafcutter ants are harmless little fellas with a knack for making their own salads, let wildlife expert Coyote Peterson convince you otherwise. Warning: if you’re the least bit squeamish, this video is definitely not for you. As it turns out, leafcutter ants are ruthless flesh-razors.
Peterson, host of the Animal Planet’s Breaking Planet, recently got up close and personal with the ants in Costa Rica, as part of his quest to find the most powerful ant bite or sting (yo, it’s gonna be bullet ants). After hearing the rumor that soldier leafcutters are able to chomp through human flesh, Peterson decided to put it to the test for himself.
The results of the experiment are definitely not pretty. After spending sixty brutal seconds with a single ant having its way with his finger (“Oh, it’s like little razorblades!”), Peterson gives the ant a rating of eight on the Ant Power Scale. “I can’t even imagine how bad the bullet ant is gonna be,” he says, his finger still bleeding from the havoc the leafcutter wreaked on it.
The 53 seconds is a countdown. It gets much bloodier from here.
Bad, indeed. Peterson has already stuck his hands inside a fire ant colony for research sake, and tested the theory that urine helps calm the sting. But the bullet ant, whose sting is ranked as the most painful according to the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, promises to be a whole new level of hurt.
We might have envied Peterson for that time he got to hang out with an ocelot cub, but we definitely do not want to be in his shoes when he meets the bullet ant. Check out the full video below, if you can stomach it:
