To many of us killer ants seem like the conflict of a bad movie storyline, but for

many residents of central and south america and even africa, they are a constantly
all-too-real threat. Killer ants or army ants are a particularly aggressive and
predatory species of ants, they are able to strip their prey to its bones in mere
minutes and leave a trail of destruction in their wake. Locals of Brazil who have
lived with the threat of the ants know what they are capable of and know that they
are to be feared. However one man decided that instead of fleeing when he heard
word of the approach of the ants, Leiningen decided that he would stay and defend
his plantation. Whether you see this choice bravery or utter stupidity and arrogance
depends on you.
It is undeniable that army ants are ruthless, fear-inspiring predators. A single colony
can contain approximately 24 million individual ants. The ants are able to act almost
like a single organism because of their complex method of communication, with
their antennae ants are able to move information quickly and put plans into action
rapidly. Colonies have complex social hierarchies with a Queen ant, as well as
worker and soldier ants. These relentless carnivores attack freely, migrate to find
food sources and eat without discrimination.
Though Leiningen was warned of the ants arrival as well as the havoc they wreak, of
his own free will he chose to stay and try to defend his plantation against the ants.
Leiningen gave his slave workers the freedom to leave if they so chose to, however
not one of them left, mainly for their faith and confidence they held in their master.
Leiningen put various defensive precautions into action in anticipation of the ants.
The first of these measures was a water filled trench that encompassed the entirety
of the plantation on the three sides that were not bordered by the river. The trench
was initially effective in holding off the ants, until the predators began to get more
creative ideas in crossing the moat, by using leaves from the tamarind trees and
using them as rafts. At this point Leiningen broke out his second method of
defending his plantation, this involved spouting petrol at the ant that were
advancing on the rafts. Between the trench and the petrol spouts, the defenders
were able to keep the ants out of the plantation until sundown.
The following morning the ants continued their attack on the plantation continuing
to use materials of the surrounding area to create rafts. This time Leiningen ordered
his men to adjust the water levels of the trench, using the dam, so that when the
ants advanced when the water level was low, they would be washed into the river
by the rising water that soon approached. This tactic proved very useful so long as
the straggler ants that did manage to cross the canal were killed immediately. It
didnt take long before some of the ants reached to slave who was controlling the
water levels and prevented him from reopening the dam to flush out the ants and
the killer ants were able to swarm the interior of the water trench. This
advancement caused the defenders to retreat to the innermost part of the
plantation, where the farmhouse and outbuilding were protected by a second
trench. This trench was to be filled with petrol instead of water. The ants charged in
the petrol without hesitation as self sacrifice so the ants that proceeded them might
use their corpses as stepping stones to cross the petrol. As Leiningen realized what

they were attempting he set fire to the petrol and let it burn to the bottom of the
cement lined channel, then replenished the petrol once more. This sequence of
events repeated multiple times.
Leiningen knew that there was nowhere near an unlimited supply of petrol and
eventually came to the conclusion that the only way to stop the ants advance for
good would be to flood the plantation and drown the ants. To accomplish this,
someone would have to make the two mile trek to the wheel that controlled the
dam through the ant infested plantation. Leiningen that he would be the only one
capable of this feet. He was successful in this but only barely made it back alive, if
not for the extensive knowledge of the faithful workers he underestimated he would
not have recovered.
Though in the end, Leiningen did triumph over the ants, extensive damage was
done to the plantation beyond what the ants would have caused if Leiningen had
left when he was told to. Not even mentioning the loss of life and both mental and
physical scars left on himself and his slaves. It seems Leiningen risked his entire
plantation as well as the innocent lives of the slaves all to prove the point that he,
the advanced European, was both smarter and braver than the locals who fled in
wake of the ant.