The Bullet ant (Paraponera clavata), is also known confusingly as the lesser giant hunting ant and the conga ant. The nickname ‘bullet ant’ stems from the sensation of its sting i.e. it’s like being shot. Bullet ants can be up to 3cm long which, although fairly big for an ant, isn’t exactly massive. But what they lack in size they make up for in fire power.
Bullet ants are found in low lying rain forests from Nicaragua to Honduras and down to Paraguay.
According to the Schmidt sting index it has the most painful sting of all Hymenoptra, a large group that includes wasps, bees and ants. Its sting even beats the fearsome tarantula hawk wasp into second place. Schmidt’s sting index is a catalogue of 78 species’ stings, most of which Schmidt tested on himself. This fearsome ant gets a 4+ which is the highest rating and a standard wasp gets a humble 2. Of the bullet ant sting he said the following:
Paraponera clavata stings induced immediate, excruciating pain and numbness to pencil-point pressure, as well as trembling in the form of a totally uncontrollable urge to shake the affected part.
The pain is reported to last for 24 hours without really chilling out at any point. For this reason the locals refer to the ant as hormiga veinticuatro meaning the 24-hour ant. The bullet ant’s searing sting is injected into the victim via a hypodermic style lance that retracts into their abdominal tip.
The bullet ant produces a neurotoxic peptide called Poneratoxin. This poison effects voltage-dependent sodium ion channels and synaptic transmission in the central nervous system. It causes a slow and long lasting contraction of smooth muscles in mammals and blocks signal transduction. In insects the bite shuts down the central nervous system all together, but humans can take quite a bit more before it becomes fatal. Apparently 30 bites per Kilo will do it.
The natives in the jungles have found a use for the ants though. They use them to suture wounds. They get the ant to bite the wound on either side, they then snap its body off and the pincers remain in position. The ants saliva helps hermetically seal the wound. So they’re not all bad after all.