WEBVTT - Floating Fire Ant Rafts Are Both Dangerous and Cool

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works. Hey, brain stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>it's Christian Sager. The horrors of hurricanes in Texas are

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<v Speaker 1>right out of an hieronymous bosh painting. The flooding, the

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<v Speaker 1>ruined homes, the tens of thousands of displaced people, not

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<v Speaker 1>to mention the chemical fires. There's more, of course, but

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<v Speaker 1>what seems to have captured the public imagination most are

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<v Speaker 1>the vast, rust colored rafts of stinging fire ants floating

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<v Speaker 1>atop Houston's already toxic floodwaters. The red imported fire ant,

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<v Speaker 1>also known as Solenopsis invicta, is native to South America,

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<v Speaker 1>but the aggressive species found its way to the United

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<v Speaker 1>States from Argentina in the nineteen thirties in the cargo

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<v Speaker 1>holds of ships. Finding themselves in a new land without

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<v Speaker 1>natural predators, they quickly spread throughout the southeastern United States,

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<v Speaker 1>making their way through Texas and all the way to

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<v Speaker 1>California by the nineteen nineties. Now the ants can be

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<v Speaker 1>found in densities that far surpass what they are able

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<v Speaker 1>to maintain in their native habitat in the Southern Hemisphere.

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<v Speaker 1>These ants do shockingly well in wet weather because they

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<v Speaker 1>evolved on the Amazon River floodplains, which means they're used

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<v Speaker 1>to their nests being inundated during the rainy season each year.

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<v Speaker 1>They've had a couple million years to come up with

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<v Speaker 1>a flood drill, and it involves sticking together. Fire ants

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<v Speaker 1>are you social, which means one ant can't survive by itself.

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<v Speaker 1>They all need each other and a queen to produce

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<v Speaker 1>offspring for the entire colonies. So when their nest floods

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<v Speaker 1>up to five hundred thousand or so, worker ants surround

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<v Speaker 1>their queen and her eggs, linking arms and forming a

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<v Speaker 1>floating raft with their waxy bodies creating pockets of air

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<v Speaker 1>for buoyancy. They link themselves together with so many points

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<v Speaker 1>of contact between different ants, their raft shares physical properties

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<v Speaker 1>similar to fabric. In fact, a single ant might link

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<v Speaker 1>with twenty other individuals in the mass. Fire ants are

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<v Speaker 1>one of very few organisms capable of working together to

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<v Speaker 1>make large structures. How the ants accomplished this has long

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<v Speaker 1>fascinated not only biologists, but also physicists and engineers. This

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<v Speaker 1>ball making behavior creates a living material that switches between

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<v Speaker 1>having physical properties of a solid and then a liquid.

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<v Speaker 1>And because none of these individual ants is leading the charge.

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<v Speaker 1>Roboticists are interested in what fire ants can teach us

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<v Speaker 1>about modular robotics. They are an inspiration. When the raft

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<v Speaker 1>reaches something dry, the ants will swarm up it for survival.

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<v Speaker 1>It could be a treat or a telephone pole, or

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<v Speaker 1>it could be a house on whose roof humans are

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<v Speaker 1>taking shelter, or it could be the ore of a robo.

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<v Speaker 1>So for now, just remember. If you see a raft

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<v Speaker 1>of fire ants floating by you in the deluge, take

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<v Speaker 1>the advice of Paul Nestor, a fire ant expert at

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<v Speaker 1>Texas A and M's Agra Life Extension Service. He says

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<v Speaker 1>to avoid avoid avoid them. But if you come across

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<v Speaker 1>a floating raft of ants, you can battle it by

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<v Speaker 1>pouring soapy water over it. It will drown the nest

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<v Speaker 1>by removing the air bubbles that allow them to float,

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<v Speaker 1>and you will commit aunt genocide. Today's episode was written

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<v Speaker 1>by Jesslyn Shields and produced by Dylan Fagin. For more

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<v Speaker 1>on this and other topics, please visit us at how

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<v Speaker 1>stuff works dot com