African Cweatures No.2 black Army or Soldier Ants

These ants are approximately 1.5cm long and black. They can bite and sting like fury. It feels like a red-hot needle. The big problem is that they work together and usually walk in a column of three metres in length and have a couple of hundred in their army.

Soldier or Army Ants -black

These black soldier ants are not the driver ants which travel in  lines of Billions protected by their soldiers alongside their columns.  sting. They take days to pass and can only be stopped by spreading ashes and coals from a fire in their way.

Driver Ants reddish in colour

One day a Missionary was riding his bicycle home the two hundred Kilometres from a Business meeting in Katanga. As he descended a long hill he was unaware that the deep sand had accumulated at the bottom and he fell off in the deep sand right into the middle of a Column of Army Ants. They hiss to warn their fellow soldiers and then go in for the kill.

This missionary was in the middle of them and they can really sting. He yelled and out popped his false teeth into sand as they got up his legs. He  needed to get his trousers down in a hurry hoping their wasn't any African children in the bush nearby. What a sight!. He eventually got his trousers back up and his false teeth cleaned off. He picked up his bike and his precious briefcase of Business meeting minutes and sore and weary headed for home. He would be more wary next time at the bottom of a long hill.

Soldier ants can sting

Congo's quick and Nasty CWEATURES

There were some very quick and nasty creatures that were around our house while we lived at Mission de Kipushya, Kasai orientale, Democratic Republique of Congo in Central Africa.

The first is the Mamba. Around the Mission we generally encountered the green Mamba which was long and thin around the neck but was very quick. It was generally hunting birds in the high acacia trees around Mission. It could climb up a solid mud brick wall with ease.
One day my wife, Esther, came in to say that she had seen a snake on the stick fence outside our home but she added, “It was only a green tree snake.” I quickly warned her that it was a Mamba and they are very deadly.

In the backyard of our Mission house there was a Kipanda Mpodi. A large thatched roofed structure which sheltered us when working outside on a rainy day. Well someone had yelled “snake! snake!” (“Nyoka, Nyoka”) in Kisonge. People came running from all around into our yard. They were looking for the culprit who had quickly hidden. While they were milling around the Kipanda Mpodi  a young slip of student saw the tip of its tail poking out the thatch . Without telling anyone he whipped it out of the thatch and hurled it into the middle of the crowd of  searchers. They all levitated and took off post haste. Remember to move quickly and know what you are doing when handling a Mamba. Our House help, Eshiba, knew what to do. He would pin the neck with a stick then roll the stick up close to the head and then pick it up behind the head and take it home for dinner.
Eshiba’s brother was running up the ridge shouting 'Nyoka' one day after turning on the water-pump in the valley. He was being chased by a huge black Mamba. His father, YaShimbanyi killed it with a bamboo. It must have been 8 feet long.

A black Mamba