Amazon’s ants are a big deal

Unlike other ants, the tocandira is a carnivorous ant that feeds mainly on insects and has solitary habits. It originates in the Amazon region and is called a giant ant due to its size of approximately 2.5 cm. They are carnivorous ants, which in addition to their large size, have a fatal poison that is injected into their prey, such as insects, slugs and even small lizards.

The tucandeira is poisonous, and its poison causes excruciating pain and swelling. As if that wasn’t enough, the poison of the tucandeira contains a type of paralytic. These ants are scattered throughout the forest, under tree trunks, holes and under fallen leaves. There are hundreds of thousands spread over large areas, offering a real danger for those who are unaware of their presence.

They are used in the male initiation ritual in the indigenous Sateré-Mawé tribe. Boys aged 8 to 9 years wear gloves full of tucandeira ants and must stand the pain of their bites for more than 10 minutes. The ritual continues until the age of 14 when the young man learns to endure pain without showing any signs of suffering. For the Sateré-Mawé, the sting of the tucandeira ant acts as a kind of vaccine.

In other tribes, ants were used for another purpose. For a man to marry a woman, it was necessary to prove his courage and resistance. The suitors were gathered together and stuck their hands in a hole full of tucandeira ants. The last man to take his hand out of the hole would be the chosen one.

Most of its activities are restricted to the night period. Bites on a man cause spots and lumps on the skin, general malaise and vomiting. The pain, deep and penetrating, is felt for periods of 12, 24 or even 48 hours. So if one day you happen to be bitten by an ant like that, put on compresses of hot water in the affected region as they help the diffusion and consequent neutralization of the poison. But be careful, some people say its sting is so painful that it is worse than a gunshot wound.

This poison is not harmful to man, unless the individual is allergic, in which case then it can cause serious complications. Unlike most ant species, tocandira ant colonies do not have a queen. They are made up exclusively of workers, who are the ants that are always active and only work for the benefit of the anthill.

What happens in the colony is a dispute between the workers, which can take days, with small breaks for rest. The winner becomes the dominant ant of the colony, a position similar to that of the queen of other species, and in these disputes there are no deaths. When the dominant ant dies, new disputes are held.

The giant ants have a lifespan of about 12 to 14 months. Although these ants can be a nuisance to humans, they perform functions in the environment that help maintain environmental balance, and can be part of the diet of other animals or even help in the dispersion of seeds and guarantee the reproduction of certain plants.