Awesome video on fire ant stings and venom!

I am deeply impressed by the quality of animation and technical info of this material! Somethings like this does not come out everyday!

Hope these guys keep up with such amazing work!

So! I have been away from this blog for quite a while... 

Will try to make up for this. I will following proceed with a series of posts on ideas I mentioned in a book chapter I just published. The complete reference for this chapter (online since SEPTEMBER 2014) and respective link is http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-007-6649-5_38-1

Let us see how much impact is generated by some facts I mention on this chapter!.. For instance, did you read the statement given by Bates (1856) in his famous The Naturalist on the River Amazons, describing the problem with fire ants in the Brazilian Amazon? “This species is exclusively found in sandy soils, in open semi-cultivated or neglected places [where] they increase only in the neighbourhood of deserted houses or unweeded plantations; consequently they are a scourge only to the lazy and worthless people that inhabit the shores of this magnificent river.” – Poor fellow, he was unaware that, essentially 100 years later, these fire ants would become a “scourge” to many different peoples around the planet! Curiously the specific passage seems to have been censored out without notice from present today's digital public copies of this book!!

 

Amazing documentary showing the use of dogs to help eradicate fire ant colonies. With one of those and some hot water with detergent one could very well get rid of fire ants over a large area with minimum impact and small workforce.

Also in the link below:

Fire ant dogs detection (SPANISH)

Update 25/09/2015

Only now I have read this amazing study describing the use of dogs in locating fire ant colonies!! Kind of sheds light on the matter.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/50396930_Fire_Ant-Detecting_Canines_A_Complementary_Method_in_Detecting_Red_Imported_Fire_Ants

Another venom extraction method... from a curious source!

I really loved this one.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0041010104001795

Maybe one day I will also experiment with this venom? These weird animals are quite nasty sometimes!..

Fire ant venom extraction method published

Dear readers and passersby!

I am proud to announce that the latest paper describing a new method for extracting fire ant venom has been published. I am afraid access is open only to academic researchers -- the .pdf can be downloaded for free HERE.

Well, basically all one has to do it to collect a fire ant nest, get the ants out, and dip them into a mixture of two solvents. Apolar solvent will hold venom alkaloids (LOTS OF IT) and water will hold venom proteins and peptides (VERY TOXIC). Now you have only to find ways of evaporating these liquids safely and store the venom.

Easy and quick, if you are not afraid of manipulating a whole horde of angry fire ants. At least workers cannot fly! I must warn you that the venom components are dangerous, and should be handled with great care. The concentrated mixture looks very much like snake venom.

Not for evil purposes!! Have fun and give me some feed back, please.

A demonstrative video can be downloaded from here. It can be viewed below:

FIRE ANT MARKETING

Man, this is sooo typical American Merchandise... thought it worth posting.

Fire ants and butterflies

The video below is about something so beautiful about fire ants that I was compelled to share. This is the product of an amazing study by other Brazilian colleagues working with Solenopsis saevissima. Watch and learn!

The background study behind this can be found here.