Do you know that Allegeny Mound Building Ants bite?

Where do I begin on this one? Ok, my day started out with a little lime in my eye. Metephorically, I mean. Today I bumped into that sycophant who I wish never existed. The bumping into her was not the problem. The problem was this evil little smile that she had on her vacuous face. As though she knew that our encounter would piss me off and relished every second of my agony and anger.

Enter the beginning of my deleterious and adverse day.

In my Mount Tambora like rage I decided that a trip through the Nature Preserve would alleviate my paroxysm of indignation. In case you know not of said "Nature Preserve", it is a whole hilly forest on campus where one can wander and explore the various trails to ones hearts content.

Having extensivly explored most of the trails, I saw on the map one that I have never been on. Anthill Trail. Sounds innocuous enough. I set my mind to it. After drudging up the hill in 89 degree weather (31.7 C) it was turning out to be a fun and distracting time. The birds were chirping, the wind was blowing a cool breeze through the forest. As I approached the very top of the trail I see huge mounds in the distance. Dirt mounds that are about a 2 meters in diameter and about 1 meter tall. Several of these dirt mounds were in a little group in the clearing. The trail passes about 3 meters away from these huge mounds.

At first I though...naw....there cannot be ant mounds of that size around here. This is not Africa. Then I look at my sandaled feet.

The trail, the mounds the trees the grass is swarming with Ants. Freaking huge 1cm big ants. And guess what? They fucking bite! All of the sudden terror hits me like a bucket of water. My feet are covered in the ants and every step I take is on more ants.

Well, I start running like a...well...like a man surrounded by biting ants. As I run and the trail open up to an old access road, every side of the road has those huge anthills and the ground is still teaming with them like some sort of Temple of Doom Scene.

Well, after running until I can see no more mounds I stop in a clearing. I start checking my feet, pants, shirt, and legs for any ants. When they bite, they hang on. I collapse in a heap and eat some baby carrots while I wait for the adreneline to get out of my system.



Other then that the rest of the walk was rather calming. I stumbled upon someone impromptu art gallery. There was a huge picture of a persons face attached to a tree opposite it was a chair for one to sit and stare at the painting. There was also some sort of White Shark sticking out of the ground. I wish I had my camera for to take some picts of what I saw. Trust me, the picture on the below link of the ant mound does not do it justice. It just doenst instil that fear of being slowly eaten by ants.


Turns out they are Formica exsectoides
for more info.

Freaking Biting Ant

Formica...coming from Formic Acid, which means they secrete it and it burns. Trust me, I know.

The Allegany mound ant Brachymyrmex depilis or Formica exsectoides will swarm in the summer when reproductive adults are ready to begin new colonies. These swarms may occur after rain storms and may even be synchronized with other colonies.

Great time for me to venture out huh? There should be a warning on that damn Map.