Incredible Siafu !

So I think all of us (including some unlucky guests) at some stage had a run in with these guys. I can remember in the Northern Serengeti they are particularly bad. On a number of occasions we got home after hosting dinner and would find our house completely covered in Siafu, they would be everywhere, so much so that we had to go and sleep somewhere else for that night. Sometimes the guests would also call and let us know that their tent is covered in millions of ants, and we would normally end up moving them as well, really tricky when the camp is fully booked.

But every time I pass a big column of Siafu ants I cant help but stop and watch them, they are mesmerizing almost like sitting around and watching a camp fire burn, as they move along in their millions.

Siafu ants on the move with larvae.

Siafu or also known as driver ants or safari ants are from the genus Dorylus. They are found mainly in central and East Africa but also extend into tropical Asia. The Siafu is without a doubt the king of swarm, marching columns can contain up to 20,000,000 individuals a truly scary sight and when food sources become scarce and the move home the numbers can grow up to 50,000,000. What I have noticed up in Northern Serengeti is that their movements increase when there is good or heavy rainfall, as there will also be all kinds of other insects out and about. Siafu are predators and they move in huge columns attacking, killing and feeding on almost everything they find, bigger prey can also be killed especially if the animal can’t get away from the attacking ants and the animal will eventually die from asphyxiation which have also been reported occurring in humans.

Siafu swarming and feeding, Northern Serengeti.

However Siafu ants can be easily avoided if you know they are there, just don’t stumble into them in the dark or stand in their lines, they will be up your pants in no time and we all know what happens then.

The marching columns are arranged with the smaller ants walking in the middle and flanked by the bigger soldier ants on the sides giving them protection and they will fiercely defend against anything that might be a threat, often standing with their huge jaws open and pointing in the air ready to bite. A bite from a Siafu ant especially the big soldiers is extremely painful leaving two big puncture wounds and they are not easy to remove as their jaws are so strong that when you try and pull them of you often break them in half leaving the head behind. Because of the head often being broken of the body when trying to remove a biting ant, some tribes for example the Maasai have used them for emergency sutures, holding the wound together and letting a soldier ant bite on either side and then braking of the head, keeping the wound or cut in place, I have never seen this done but believe that it can work

Siafu columns hunting at night, Northern Serengeti.

Within a Siafu colony things are made up very similar to other types of ants where you have a queen, workers and soldiers, and as with most ants they are sterile non-reproducing females and blind, communicating primarily through pheromones. Male driver ants or also called sausage flies because of their big sausage like abdomens are attracted to columns of Siafu’s, when the columns come across a male they tear the wings of and carry him to be mated with the queen. Male driver ants leave the nest soon after hatching and die not long after mating.

Example of the soldier ants protecting the smaller ants in the middle, ready to bite !

So next time when you curse the bite of a Siafu ant, take a moment to remember what incredible and formidable hunters/predators they are of the insect world. Imagine a column of 20,000,000 lions!!!