In Australia we have lots of creatures that people see as quite scary. We have snakes that can kill you and spiders whose bite will probably make you wish you were dead. Sharks, crocodiles, stingers… the list goes on.
These critters will mainly leave you alone unless you stomp on them or swim through their loungeroom, so really there isn’t much to worry about if you pay attention to what you are doing.
Small, but scary….
One critter we have though, is just nasty and can be quite dangerous. Here is a picture of one of them next to my ring for scale. Terrifying.
What? Something so tiny can’t be worthy of a scary post of its own?
Well, these guys are very aggressive and extra bitey. So much so that I used a stick to put my ring down. No way was I getting my fingers within leaping distance of those jaws.
This ant (Myrmecia pilosula species group) is known as a Jumping Jack or Jack Jumper). Their venom can cause severe anaphylactic reactions, even death, and is very painful (trust me, I know).
They are called Jumping Jack because when they are stirred up they move very quickly and can jump a few body lengths, even jumping off plants to attack you. And they like to bite. (Well, sting. They grab you with their jaws and sting you with their tail. Bite or sting, I don’t care, IT HURTS!) They will actually chase after you, bringing their friends along for the hunt if you don’t get away quickly.
We have a few nests of them in the garden and mainly we all keep to ourselves, we leave them alone and they leave us alone. I would like to call it peace but it is mainly a stalemate. They can’t make us move out and clearly they aren’t going anywhere either. Don’t worry, we’ve tried. I think some parts of the garden are still radioactive after our attempts, but still the Jumping Jacks remain.
One nest I am still working on removing though. Our front lawn is divided into two parts and in the middle of one side is a round garden bed about two big steps wide and it seems the bricks around the edge are wonderful for digging ant nests beside.
Over the years this bed has had various things growing in there, roses, weeds, and most recently herbs. Picking the herbs was quite a dangerous endeavor as there was always the chance of picking a handful of furious ant as well.
White tea plant, Camellia sinensis.
The herbs had reached the end of their life so a few months ago I decided the garden needed a re-vamp and bought a few tea plants to go in there. My theory is that they will either grow properly and I will be able to pick my own tea, or they will just grow into a hedgey thing (as tea does) and they will still look nice. Anything will be better than the half dead herbs that were in there before.
Of course it still meant I had to dig out all of the plants that were already in there and that involved disturbing the Jumping Jack nest. Scary stuff.
I had a plan though, and waited until a cold, damp day. Horrible for digging but the kind of day the ants stay at home. If you disturb them on a hot day they will boil furiously out of the ground and run up your shovel handle!
I must have chosen my day well as I only saw a few of them. Each time two or more appeared I decided that it was time for a break and retired to the house. I wasn’t scared of course, I just felt like a cuppa, ok?
Well, my tea plants are in and seem to be happy in their new home. Even though I had dug the ant nest out to quite a deep level (and gave that spot an extra dose of smelly fertilizer just to annoy them) I noticed today that they had already tunnelled back out. Bugger. 😦
Not only that, it was such a sunny day a few of the cheeky buggers were out on the bricks sunning themselves! Hmmmm…. Maybe I could be rid of the lot of them if I laid on some tiny banana-lounges and Aerogard cocktails… 😉
Just waiting for me to look away… then, BOING! CHOMP!
Those are good up-close pictures!
Thank you. I can thank my zoom lens for that, normally I like to get close in when I take photos, not this time!
Nasty buggers. It’s been awhile since I’ve had to worry about one of these, but I remember a time as a kid I got bitten on the instep and my foot swelled so much it was like a big ball of flesh, no instep left at all. I Van’t remember which ant it me, jack jumper, inchman, either way it hours like hell. Thankfully the kids haven’t been bitten…
I do love the way you write – boil up out the ground, perfect analogy. Have you tried petrol and burning them out?
Yep, tried everything. They have multiple entries so they just walk out somewhere else and come back later!
That bite on your foot sounds awful! Amazing how something so small can do so much damage isn’t it?
Yes ago we were holidaying at the beach with our dogs (before kids) and they walked through a mass of jumping jacks with their noses to the ground. The poor things both got stung multiple times on the face. Luckily they didn’t react badly to it, although they were both quite swollen and upset and stayed away from that spot for the rest of the time. As did we!
Poor puppies. They soon learn, and would have been feeling quite sorry for themselves.
It’s bad enough being bitten on the extremities isn’t it? The face would be completely terrible. 😦
I don’t think we have any Jumping Jacks but we do have a lot of the ordinary bull ants, and they are unpleasant too. Just as a matter of interest, how did you get your ring back? That guy looks as if he rather liked it.
I waited until he walked away and then used the stick again. 🙂 Now I’m afraid that he has the scent of unprotected finger and I’ll never be safe out there again!
Bull Ants have a dreadful bite too, but they mostly walk on by you and only have a go if they feel threatened. I think these ones are just born grumpy.
Yeah, that’s what I thought [re the bull ants]. I’ve only ever been bitten once so I can live with those guys. I definitely wouldn’t be feeling neighbourly with those jumping jacks though.
Glad we don’t have ants like this in the uk. Fantastic pictures you took though, that Jumpin Jack looks like he likes your ring!
Thank you, I was pleased that he stayed still long enough to get the picture. He did like my ring though and it looked like he was having a good taste of it. I’m scared now he knows what my hand tastes like he might be on the look-out for a second, bigger, helping. Eeek!
I’ve never seen these evil little guys either, and I hope I never do. We have multitudes of tiny black ants which sting a bit if they get on your skin but don’t seriously bite. They come in handy as they have a nest near and path across the bottom of the G.O.’s shed door which opens from the ground up, so anyone including him, trying to unlock it to get in, gets an armful of ants. Mostly people have guard dogs. We have guard ants. If only you could marshall the Jumping Jacks into a useful force.
Guard ants. You’re right, it would be great if they used their powers for good instead of evil. I guess as far as they are concerned they ARE using them for good.
Your shed ants sound very helpful. 🙂 Has the G.O. ever just said to himself “They are looking a bit feisty today, I can’t be bothered” and gone back inside instead of retiring to the Man Cave? 😉
A friend used to have microscopic ants in her driveway, when you stood by the car waiting to go and having a last minute gossip (as you do), dozens would crawl up your legs and all start biting at the same time. They were the cause of many a hurried departure!
Funny how something so small can still overpower us isn’t it. 😀
It appears your friend has the same ants as us, and yes, on occasion, the G.O. has said “I can’t be bothered, I’ll get X later”. Mostly he swears, and vows to move the door latch but never does because then the guard ants couldn’t do their job…
Too true, it’s not the big things that bring undone, but the small ones you don’t see until too late, or they become overwhelming.
Yikes! Scary little buggers.
Makes ordinary ants seem warm & fuzzy.
Scary indeed. 🙂 I have actually used one of the kids as a spotter before, getting them to keep an eye in the nest while I do some digging nearby so I get a heads up before the attack commences! 🙂
Those mandibles look dangerous! One can well imagine their bites/stings would hurt. What about fire ants – do you have those pests?
Fire ants aren’t native to Australia but they have managed to make their way to the north of Australia and set up home thanks to some stowaways on shipping containers. 😦
They aren’t down here in the south and I hope they never are!
There are so many amazing creatures in the world aren’t there? (I just wish they didn’t like the taste of human 😉 )