# Curious: Scorp vs Bullet Ant sting



## Anthony Straus (Oct 16, 2008)

Ok so a bullet ant rates as a 4.0+ on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. 

Where do some scorpions fit in? or even a tarantula?

Has anyone here been tagged by a Bullet Ant?


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## calum (Oct 16, 2008)

nope but i've been tagged by a p.imp and that's weak country for a scorpion and it was bad enough. 


but i'd imagine that some buthids have horribly painful stings.


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## CT9A (Oct 16, 2008)

From what ive read about bull ant bites are somewhat similar to buthid stings. Ive been stung by B. Jacksoni and C. Scupt. Havent been bit by a bull ants, although my guess would be that a scorpions sting would be more painful (buthid) This is just a guess and again I Haven't been biten by a bull ant.


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## Rydog (Oct 16, 2008)

I was in Peru over the summer and witnessed someone getting stung by a bullet ant and let me tell you it did not look fun. THey areaggressive beasts and the scary things is that that are MASSIVE almost 2 inches.


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## signinsimple (Oct 17, 2008)

Some scorpion stings are definitely more dangerous, but the bullet ant is purported to have the most painful sting.  Not sure there has to be a correlation between how deadly and how painful a sting is.  Probably not.


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## Widowman10 (Oct 18, 2008)

signinsimple said:


> Not sure there has to be a correlation between how deadly and how painful a sting is.  Probably not.


i agree. the LQ would definitely be more "deadly" but the bullet ant would probably hurt much more.


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## bjaeger (Oct 18, 2008)

Well, on http://www.painfulbite.com, the bullet ant is rated the most painful out of everything.


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## signinsimple (Oct 18, 2008)

bjaeger said:


> Well, on http://www.painfulbite.com, the bullet ant is rated the most painful out of everything.


Yeah that makes sense.  It is supposed to be the most painful.  Might have to do with the survival strategy of the ant.  The bullet ant is a social insect who's 1st and foremost concern is defense of the nest, so maybe their venom evolved to hurt as much as possible to scare off threats to the nest, not necessarily to kill.  The scorpions are solitary predators and the deadly one's evolved their venom to kill their prey as quickly as possible...maybe to prevent potential injuries.  But, you can see 2 main strategies in scorpions:  Venom & claws.  Some species developed the claws as the main weapon for hunting, others the venom (thicker tail).  I'd be interested in learning if the pain of some of the less deadly scorpions was more than the deadly ones.  It wouldn't shock me if there were some large clawed scorps who developed their venom as mainly defensive and targeted it to hurt it's main predators as much as possible, while relying on the claws mainly for hunting.


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## Aztek (Oct 18, 2008)

Yeah, More dangerous =/= More painful


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## RichardMorris (Oct 18, 2008)

Rydog said:


> I was in Peru over the summer and witnessed someone getting stung by a bullet ant and let me tell you it did not look fun. THey areaggressive beasts and the scary things is that that are MASSIVE almost 2 inches.


do bullet ants sting or bite? you said sting.


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## Aztek (Oct 19, 2008)

RichardMorris said:


> do bullet ants sting or bite? you said sting.


I thought all ants stung?


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## Duc de Blangis (Oct 19, 2008)

somebody get their hands on some bullet ants and let's test the waters


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## Rydog (Oct 19, 2008)

bullet ants sting and bite, and no not all ants sting.


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## Widowman10 (Oct 19, 2008)

Duc de Blangis said:


> somebody get their hands on some bullet ants and let's test the waters


you first my friend...  



Rydog said:


> bullet ants sting and bite, and no not all ants sting.


yes. the sting is what really hurts though. bites will pinch, but not gonna hurt like a sting!


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## Anthony Straus (Oct 19, 2008)

Ok, if someone gets some in, I'm willing to bite the bullet and get stung by the ant.


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## Aztek (Oct 19, 2008)

Rydog said:


> bullet ants sting and bite, and no not all ants sting.


What I meant was that the ones that cause pain are the ones that sting.
We're not talking about painless ants.
Leelz


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## skinheaddave (Oct 19, 2008)

I know someone who has been gotten by a bullet ant and by C.margaritatus (we believe, could have been another Centruroides in Costa Rica).  The ant hurt a lot, lot, lot, lot, lot, lot, lot more but the scorpion sting resulted in a tinny taste in his mouth and was a lot more worrying to him.

Cheers,
Dave


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## Rydog (Oct 19, 2008)

Aztek said:


> What I meant was that the ones that cause pain are the ones that sting.
> We're not talking about painless ants.
> Leelz


I was just clarifying is all, your statement was refering to all the ants not just the painful ones.


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## Rydog (Oct 19, 2008)

I have a picture of a bullet ant i'll try and find. The things are fun to mess with(with a long stick of course) they go for just about anything.


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## Shagrath666 (Oct 19, 2008)

anthonystraus said:


> Ok, if someone gets some in, I'm willing to bite the bullet and get stung by the ant.


me too, send some my way and we will see just how bad they are. I got no qualms with any venomous creature, as long as theres a good chance i wont die. Ive taken it from a lionfish, rabbitfish, longspine urchin, fire ant, tarantulas, emperor scorp, bees, hornets. i dont mind. i wouldnt do the lion again though, lost the use of my arm for like 2 weeks, w/ bad bad blisters and swelling. By far the lion beats all in venom dept. in my experience. HORRIBLE HORRIBLE pain from the lion, i remember almost passing out trying to make it to the sink, scalding water (breaks the venom down) was like a refreshing splash in a pool on top of the burning in my arm


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## RichardMorris (Oct 19, 2008)

anthonystraus said:


> Ok, if someone gets some in, I'm willing to bite the bullet and get stung by the ant.


Most excellent. This is one of the more entertaining threads for a while.


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## bjaeger (Oct 19, 2008)

I've had plenty of lion fish before. Never got tagged, though


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## Shagrath666 (Oct 19, 2008)

bjaeger said:


> I've had plenty of lion fish before. Never got tagged, though


dont try to, my first time was a "hmmm lets see how bad this is" experience. ITS BAD!!! dumb mistake on my part, but then again i was just getting into the venomous creatures and it was a good learning experience. Since then ive been tagged by a Dwarf lion, and that was on the pinkie, had swelled up for 3 days and hurt immensely, the only indicator of when the pain will stop is when the blisters get so big the pop on thier own.

but im all for this bullet ant, bring it on!! you only live once, build as much venom tolerance as you can while you can or die trying!!!


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## bjaeger (Oct 19, 2008)

I haven't owned any for ~10 years.

Could you imagine what it would feel like to be tagged by a regular lion? They're so much bigger than the dwarfs. Ouch.


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## Anthony Straus (Oct 19, 2008)

OK,

based on this youtube video it can't be tooo bad......right???:? 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sif5xN50il8


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## bjaeger (Oct 19, 2008)

Doesn't even look like he got tagged..


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## Shagrath666 (Oct 19, 2008)

bjaeger said:


> I haven't owned any for ~10 years.
> 
> Could you imagine what it would feel like to be tagged by a regular lion? They're so much bigger than the dwarfs. Ouch.


they say that the dwarfs are worse, chemically speaking and amount, but ive been tagged by both, adult Volitan is much much worse


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## Shagrath666 (Oct 19, 2008)

anthonystraus said:


> OK,
> 
> based on this youtube video it can't be tooo bad......right???:?
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sif5xN50il8


you and me need to have a bullet ant party, bust out the ants, have a chilled bottle of Jack on standby, it'll be a blast!


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## Rydog (Oct 20, 2008)

Well I managed to find the pic of the bullet ant. Its kinda blurry so I apoligize for that (its as easy taking photos in the rainforest).


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## RichardMorris (Oct 20, 2008)

That's a BFA. And it looks like it's about to feed.

Along the same train of thought, I was under the impression that soldier ants (in a jungle) bite rather than sting as well. And they have a major bad reputation as well. 

Do fire ants sting or bite?


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## Widowman10 (Oct 20, 2008)

RichardMorris said:


> That's a BFA. And it looks like it's about to feed.
> 
> Along the same train of thought, I was under the impression that soldier ants (in a jungle) bite rather than sting as well. And they have a major bad reputation as well.
> 
> Do fire ants sting or bite?


sting! i didn't think they were that bad when i tried it...


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## furball677 (Nov 13, 2016)

signinsimple said:


> Some scorpion stings are definitely more dangerous, but the bullet ant is purported to have the most painful sting.  Not sure there has to be a correlation between how deadly and how painful a sting is.  Probably not.


You have to consider the fact that the schmidt pain index is only insect stings, not arachnids. And most of the time when they say that bullet ants have the most painful sting, they're not counting arachnids. I know this is old, but I thought I would clarify that.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Pipa (Nov 13, 2016)

I've heard you can be hiking, minding your own business and a bullet ant will drop from the tree and land on you and sting the snot outta ya !!!


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## Pipa (Nov 13, 2016)

.


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