Fire ants will form rafts after floods. Some being able to stay afloat for weeks!

Comments

• Egriaga@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Wait shit this isn’t a meme… uhhhhh. Interesting anyways

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  • fossilesque@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Forbidden liferaft

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    • Egriaga@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I got a stick to get them to land, and what do they do to repay me! THEY BITE MEE

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  • gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    it is very appreciated whether meme or not.

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  • Hupf@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    xkcd.com/1610/

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  • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    We’ll allow it

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• Prontomomo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  These poor fellas are having a worse time than the big bunch

  Image

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  • sirimeow@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    The ones with a small leaf boat in the bottom right corner are vibing though

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    • morto@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      the crickets at the top seem to be vibing too

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  • Egriaga@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    On the bright side the river is lower than when I took this picture, so they might’ve lived!

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  • CuddlyCassowary@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Hey guys… wait up!

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  • oce@jlai.lu ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It’s une échappée from le peloton.

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• someguy3@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Do the bottom ones drown?

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  • Egriaga@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    They actually take turns so they all get air

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    • howler@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Amazing

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• folekaule@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I remember hearing about this in reports from major hurricanes in the South. Sounds pretty horrifying to be stranded on a roof or floating around on your own makeshift raft and then happening upon one of these ant rafts of doom.

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  • Blooper@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Fun story - as a kid my backyard in-ground pool would occasionally get these grapefruit sized and rafts. No idea why or how they would do it, but somehow they’d find themselves floating around in there. And if you don’t look too closely it just looks like a dead leaf that landed in the pool.

    Dove in one hot summer day. Came up for air. Facefull of ants. Never again.

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  • nomy@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    My first thought was floating along and brushing up against it, absolutely terrifying.

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    • Egriaga@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      They bit the T A R outta me

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  • tipicaldik@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    middle school, 1970’s NW Florida… our phys. ed. field would flood out pretty bad whenever it would rain a lot, so on those occasions we’d have a free period to just screw around and socialize. On this particular day, me, a scrawny little bug-eyed ginger kid who got picked on pretty regularly, was being chased by a group of other kids who really wanted to torture me some more. I decided to veer off through the knee-deep flooded PE grounds, which allowed me to escape my tormentors, but also gave me the opportunity to learn first hand that fire ants do indeed float in large masses, and are quite eager to swarm up on the first thing that gets within reach.

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  • huquad@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Can confirm, or if you have to walk in the water. Just one more thing to watch out for. Regular ants are bad enough, fire ants can all go to hell.

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  • JayGray91@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    As a kid I slid down a slide once into fire ants

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• rants_unnecessarily@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Do the bottom ones drown and the top ones just hold them together? Or do they rotate shifts?

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  • psycho_driver@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Not sure if there’s anything special about fire ants but when regular ants build bridges, yeah the bottom ones drown.

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  • Jumi@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    They trap air between their bodies and extremities, that’s how they float as well.

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    • rants_unnecessarily@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Oh that makes sense, yeah.

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  • Beehaw_Girl@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    You are asking the right questions. And I suspect the bottom ants offer themselves as sacrifice.

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• snoons@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Someane save them, use your arm if you have to!

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  • Natanael@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Are you secretly a fireant?

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    • far_university1990@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Or masochist.

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• Neptr@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Not enough fire. Flamethrower those suckers.

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• orenj@leminal.space ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Ants together strong

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• Beehaw_Girl@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  How did they eat and sleep if they’re floating around stuck like that for weeks?

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