Attack of the Ants

As promised, a short narration of my encounter with some rather unfriendly ants in Naivasha:

I had just returned to our campsite after a long day of hiking.  Time for a relaxing yoga session in my short shorts and bare feet.  We had just started the “clear your mind, focus on breathing” part by lying flat in the grass.  Right as I was getting comfortable, I felt a sharp pinch on my lower left calf.  Ouch!  I sat up and smacked my leg, receiving a few glares from the others.  Okay, Lainey, you can be quiet, you can relax, there are only a few (rather large) ants around.  I squirmed as I felt a few more ants crawling over my feet, but was salvaged when another intern discovered a few ants of his own and jumped up to whack them off.  Our yoga circle migrated about 20 feet, which was enough to prevent any other disturbances by the ants.  Well, for now, at least.

The next afternoon, after waking from a nap, I left my tent to go to the central lodge for a meeting and dinner.  As I closed up the tent, I felt another piercing bite or two on my feet.  This time, I got a better look: the ant was 5x the size of small ants that I’m used to, reddish-brown in color, and had two big, nasty pincers protruding from its head.  There were maybe twenty ants in the grass nearby my tent, but at this point they were no more than a minor disturbance, so I brushed off my feet, and went to the meeting without bringing anything with me.

After a short two hours, I realized I needed my wallet for dinner.  And I could really use my jacket, it was getting fairly cold.  So between the meeting and dinner, as dusk was falling, I walked back to our campsite by myself.  I approached my tent, but stopped just short of the zipper… there were about 70 ants swarming the front side of the tarp.  Well.  I didn’t come back for nothing.  So I’m going for it.  That’s a good idea, right?  Wrong.  As soon as I took another step in and reached for the zipper, it became clear that I had entered enemy territory.  Ants were swarming my feet and beginning to climb my legs.  (I had overlooked, in the dim lighting, the fact that there were A LOT more ants in the grass around the tent.)  Within seconds I felt maybe fifteen bites on my feet, which was all it took to change my mind.  I jumped back shrieking and kicked off my sandals, which instantly turned from bright blue to that reddish-brown color.  Ant-covered flip flops in hand, I ran to the nearby dirt path, slapping myself and yelping the whole way there.  After throwing my flip flops on the ground repeatedly to rid the ants, and enduring just a few more bites, I plucked the remaining stubborn ants out of the rubber of my shoes.  (Those pincers hold strong!)  Just as I began returning down the path towards the main lodge, I felt two more sharp bites- one on my side and one on my head.  Those darn pests had me pretty worked up by this point, so naturally I screamed and ran like a fool to the bathroom.  I had to swat at and pluck out the remaining ants until I was finally satisfied that my body was ant-free. 

Back at the dinner table, I warned my roommate that the ants had completely invaded the area around (but hopefully not inside) our tent.  Strangely enough, they had not touched the tents on either side of our own.  (We didn’t even have any food or drink inside our tent to particularly attract the ants.)  I just hoped that they would be gone by the time we were done eating.  Wrong again.  A few other interns headed back to the camp site before I had finished eating, and came back with full reports: The ants had invaded.  Or rather the demon ants.  Apparently it was a site to see: ants had covered 3/4^th of the tents, any attempt to enter the war zone was met with expletives and frantic hopping, and a few interns took refuge on the tree stumps in the center of our site.  There’s no WAY I’m going back there.  Those ants won’t fool me twice.  Lucky for us, the campgrounds manager was more than accommodating.  After pouring kerosene around our site, which I believe deters, but doesn’t kill, the ants, he set up a large room upstairs in the main lodge with mattresses and blankets.  So we had a surprisingly peaceful slumber party without a single ant bite throughout the night.

When morning rolled around, I was not looking forward to going back to my tent.  One way or another, I’d have to get all my belongings out of there; we were leaving that morning.  But as I approached my tent, I found the ants would not be a problem.  Just as quickly as they had come, the demon ants had completely vanished from the site.  Not a one to be found.  Whew.

When I got back home from Naivasha, I just had to find out what kind of ants these were.  The campgrounds manager referred to them as safari ants, but could that possibly be a euphemism for the insects featured on Discovery Channel, siafu ants, native to East Africa?  I cannot be sure, as there are around 500 species of ants in East Africa, but the Wikipedia definition of Dorylus (aka siafu ants or safari ants) sounds about right.  “Their bite is severely painful, each soldier leaving two puncture wounds when removed. Removal is difficult, however, as their jaws are extremely strong, and one can pull a soldier ant in two without it releasing its hold.”   So THAT’S why they hurt!  Also: “In East Africa they are used as natural, emergency sutures. Various East African indigenous tribal peoples will use the soldiers to stitch the wound by getting the ants to bite on both sides of the gash, then breaking off the body. This seal can hold for days at a time.” How’s that for indigenous medicine?

Needless to say, I was not exactly looking forward to the camping portion of our travels to Masaai Mara, tourist central of Kenya.  Our housing was described as tents with beddings and a toilet/shower in each tent.  Confusing!  But that’s exactly what they were: large tents (with beds inside) attached to a permanent bathroom with plumbing.  Luckily these tents protected us from most insects, so siafu ants were not a problem. 

Masaai Mara was a great place for safari.  The highlights were the wildebeest migration, watching the sunrise, and seeing two cheetahs and some adorable lion cubs.  But it was a lot of travel time (about 32 hours total) for such a short time there (less than two full days, with most of the waking hours spent in a safari vehicle.)  I’m glad I went, but I’m ready to be staying put for the next (and last!) two weeks in Kenya.