Angry Bull ant

I have had a fascination and love/hate affair with bull ants since I was a young boy. I recall when I was about 5 or 6 being bitten by a bull ant, and I have never forgotten the experience, or how painful it was.

Then in recent weeks we have seen bull ants when shooting blips of other creatures large and small. Always with the thought that it will be easy to do a bull ant blip on a quiet blip day.

A week ago when we were on our evening blip observation walk we noted a particularly large gum tree where hundreds of bull ants were going up the trunk, maybe for a late afternoon snack of honeydew.

Tonight we went back to that same tree and sure enough there were many of these angry ants running up the trunk. Some were all black and a few were larger with red torsos. I was after the large red ones as they looked far more exciting. Here is what I managed to capture, and he looks even angrier in LARGE.

These vicious little ants (mostly simply called bull ants) are often called bulldog ants, inch ants, sergeant ants, jumper ants or jack-jumpers (although jack jumper only applies to a special genus of ants. Bull ants can grow to over 40 mm (1.6 in) in length, with the smallest species 15 mm (0.59 in) long.

Almost all of the approximately 90 species are endemic to Australia, with the single exception of one from New Caledonia, where it is rare. The ant in my blip is just under 1 inch in length.

These ants are well known in Australia for their aggressive behaviour and powerful stings. Their venom has the potential to induce anaphylactic shock in allergic sting victims. As with most severe allergic reactions, if left untreated the reaction may be lethal.

These large ants have characteristic large eyes and long, slender mandibles. They have superior vision, able to track and even follow intruders from a distance of 1 metre.

Bull ants eat small insects, honeydew (a sweet, sticky liquid found on leaves, deposited from various insects), seeds, fruit, fungi, gums, and nectar. Generally speaking we prefer to stay well away from them!