Fire ants get a bad rap--and for good reason. The pesky little brutes are notorious for their biting, stinging ways--and, as millions of Americans discover each year, their stings can be extremely painful, even deadly. And then there's the bugs' economic cost: in the U.S. alone, fire ants cost us about $1 billion a year.
Given all the harm fire ants cause, you'd never guess that they're also capable of great art. At least they are with a little help from an artist with a bucket of molten aluminum and access to one of their giant mounds.
Check out the video above to see the result of the ant-artist collaboration. As you'll see, it's quite beautiful--though the artist has been stung by critics who call the process beastly.
“I disabled comments because I'm sick of your bickering,” the artist wrote in the video's description on YouTube. “Also, I couldn't get YouTube to stop sending me an email every time someone posted ‘What if I poured aluminum in your house’ for the 100th time.”
Given all the harm fire ants cause, you'd never guess that they're also capable of great art. At least they are with a little help from an artist with a bucket of molten aluminum and access to one of their giant mounds.
Check out the video above to see the result of the ant-artist collaboration. As you'll see, it's quite beautiful--though the artist has been stung by critics who call the process beastly.
“I disabled comments because I'm sick of your bickering,” the artist wrote in the video's description on YouTube. “Also, I couldn't get YouTube to stop sending me an email every time someone posted ‘What if I poured aluminum in your house’ for the 100th time.”