(Eciton burchelli - Army Ant) The most terrifying ants of all are the army ants, which march through the forest with the sole intent of turning small creatures into skeletons in a few minutes. They produce a faint hissing sound and distinct ant army odor. They're like a wolf pack, but with tens of thousands of miniature beasts of prey which merge and unite to form one great living creature.

The ants' jaws are so powerful that Indians once used them to suture wounds by holding the ant over a wound and squeezing its body so that its jaws would instinctively shut, clamping the flesh together. Then the body was pinched off. Pretty ingenius would you say? When living in the jungles of Costa Rica one can become quite resourceful with what we have available at the time. Also commonly referred as "MacGyver".

Hollywood images of mammals and even humans fleeing madly before them are mostly imagination run wild. In truth, while the ants advance across the forest floor driving small creatures in front of them, humans and other large creatures can simply step aside and watch the column pass by--this can take several hours. Even when the ants raid human habitations, people can simply clear out with their foodstock while the ants clean out the cockroaches and other vermin as thoroughly as any exterminator might.

Larvae carried by workers produce pheromones which stimulate the army to keep on the move. When the larvae begin to pupate and no longer exude their chemical messages, the ants bivouac in a vast ball in a hollow. They actually cling to one another and make a nest of their bodies, complete with passageways and chambers where the eggs are deposited. Once the queen lays her eggs and these hatch as larvae, a new generation of workers and soldiers synchronistically emerges from the stored pupae. The larvae begin to secrete their characteristic pheromone, and the army is again stimulated to march off and terrorize the bush.

The co-operative behavior of these extremely complex social insects is very unique among New World army ants in removing and consuming vertebrate flesh, based on the observation of the ants feeding on the dead snake. They noted that raiding parties of other New World army ants occasionally sting and kill small vertebrates such as lizards, snakes and birds, but do usually not consume them. Other New World army ants prey heavily on insects and other invertebrates.