Hornet nest destroying suit - GIF

[Frank S]

The desert harvester ant is actually an ant just a large red sucker no stingers but powerful mandibles that can actually rip through flesh However they are quite clam when compared to other ants
The Texas red ant also a harvester ant are not so calm though

Bullet ants have stingers like some other species of ants

Cow ants are all warm and fuzzy looking until one stings you

This is what can happen from a single sting

But first prize for the deadliest ant would have to go to the fire ant A smallish ant less than 1/4 inch long But when 1 attacks they all attack

A lot of people are very allergic to their bites and stings and will go into anaphylactic shock within minutes of being bitten by a single ant
But when this happens it doesn't matter if you are allergic or not you are in trouble
.
But the Grand prize of all probably goes to the Australian bulldog ant
1 bite and sting have actually been known to kill an adult human in 15 minutes.
Yep Australia wins again or loses depending on how you look at it for having way too many extremely deadly species.

[blkadder]

Kill it with fire! Then kill it again with more fire and then C-4.

[JTG]

I've actually done field research with ants, specifically Florida Harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex badius) and red imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta), so I'd like to throw in a few clarifications:

First, you cannot be allergic to an ant bite, as there is no introduction of a foreign substance to the body -- bites from ants are purely mechanical, and while they can hurt or even draw blood, they aren't medically significant unless you are receiving hundreds or thousands of bites. Some ants can spray formic acid into wounds caused by biting, and this does hurt, but contact dermatitis is not life-threatening. Stings involve the injection of venom, and that's when allergies can come into play -- many ants will bite in order to produce enough leverage to sting, but it's the sting that can cause real problems.

The term "harvester ant" can refer to many different species, most of which cannot sting (like those in the genus Pheidole, the big-headed ants), but members of the genus Pogonomyrmex can (and do) sting and the experience is not pleasant -- I know from personal experience. The Maricopa harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex maricopa, found in Arizona) actually has the most toxic venom known in insects, with an LD50 in mice of 0.12 mg/kg, though it isn't the most painful to humans.

The Bullet ant is no joke, and has the most painful sting known, scoring 4+ on the Schmidt sting pain index.

Cow ants/cow killers/velvet ants are in fact wasps, not ants, where the females are wingless and can deliver quite a nasty sting.

Fire ants are annoying, and yes, when you disturb a nest you will have a swarm of angry ants stinging you, but unless you are trapped with them, or are specifically allergic, the stings are not dangerous. I spent a month digging up fire ant nests and maintaining a colony in a laboratory, and I was stung many hundreds of times, as were all of the other researchers -- it wasn't fun, but none of us have had any lasting effects. Allergies to fire ant venom are rare, and while they may technically be the 'deadliest ant', this is mostly due to the fact that an estimated 14+ million people in the US are stung by fire ants every year, and some of the small percentage of people who are allergic go into severe anaphylaxis without ready access to medical care; current estimates range from fewer than 200 total recorded fatalities, up to roughly a dozen fatalities per year, with most occurring in people who were severely allergic, or unable to move away from a swarm (infants and bedridden adults). Saying the fire ant is the 'deadliest ant' is similar to the technically-true statement that peanuts are the 'deadliest legume', because something like 150-200 people die per year from allergic reactions, while the rosary pea is clearly a much more dangerous legume, containing the ludicrously toxic compound abrin, yet it kills far fewer people because we know they are poisonous and don't eat them.

Australian Bull ants (Myrmecia pyriformis), along with the rest of the jack jumper ants, are likely the most dangerous ants currently known, as the prevalence of allergic reactions is somewhere around 2-3% of the local population, and anaphylaxis appears to be more common for allergic individuals than for other venom allergies.

[Frank S]

Hornets bees wasps are also fascinating creatures so many 1000's of species to choose form
https://www.pestwiki.com/bees-wasps-...ellow-jackets/
Some are friends while many are considered foe. ranging in size from 0.0055"(Chalcid wasps) to having wing span of nearly 11.5cm (Megascolia procer)

[yelcho]

He's destroying the nest, but the hornets will just build another. A better use of the suit may be to bring boiling water to the nest at night and not only get rid of the nest but the hornets as well. Pouring molten aluminum in for a piece of art work is an option, but they're not as pretty as an ant nest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=UUezq1GyAko

Not had any dealings with hornets but with wasp nests find petrol (gasoline) WITHOUT matches does the trick. Cautious preparation of entrance and blocking any extras during daylight. come night stick length hose into entrance and seal with turf, use a funnel to pour petrol into hose and then remove hose a seal hole. very rare that they dig out from underground nest. petrol fumes much better than flames. nests not underground take more cunning and extreme caution about igniting fumes.

[Floradawg]

I thought yellow jackets only nested in the ground. I was spraying a nest just under the edge of the pad of my garage when one of them hit me in the arm. I thought it had just brushed against me, but it had stung me. No pain but itching later. The problem was, they weren't only flying out but also returning.