After a historic rainfall these past few days, South Carolina has had to deal with several deaths, flooding and dams being breached. Now, with evacuations being more than likely, locals have one more thing to contend with: floating colonies of fire ants.
While reporting at the scene over the weekend, a reporter with FOX Carolina nearly stepped into a fire ant colony thinking that it was a pile of mud.
While this might seem disturbing to some, the biological phenomenon is actually quite normal and is the ants' standard response to flooding, reported CityLab. Since the ants originate from South America, they have evolutionary adaptations to heavy rainfall and flooding - which is common in the Amazon basin.
When water levels start to rise, colonies of ants gather their eggs and link together to create a weave that allows them to float on water, reported National Geographic. The fine layer of hairs on the ants' bodies can trap a thin layer of air to prevent ants on the lowest level of the "raft" from being completely submerged.
If necessary, the ants can even remain in this formation for weeks if left undisturbed.
Tim Davis, an entomologist and Clemson University senior extension agent, noted that while people might be tempted to gawk at the floating masses, he urged them to avoid the masses of ants at all costs.
"If one of those rafts comes in contact with you, or you try to break it apart, it will likely disperse and crawl up you," he warned.
