Original subtitles

So if you guys are ready,

let's plunge our hands into a burning ring of fire ants.

Here we go.

As you see, I'm already nervous

right from the beginning.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

This is a mound of fire ants.

Yes, it is. Oh, yeah.

I think we all know where this is heading.

And there's your hands, pre-scars.

Well, enough people had seen the "Harvester

Ants" video at this point to know that like,

oh, hands, ant mound, here we go.

Eesh.

This is already bringing me back, man.

Oh, yeah.

What a bad idea this was.

Yeah, I warned you.

A lot of people learned

about fire ants that day.

We're going to talk about that in a second, Mario.

Hold that right there.

So when I was in Arizona, you saw me put my hands

into a mound of harvester ants.

Not smart.

Not something you want to be doing.

What's funny is that this is so far

before a lot of these other more painful stings.

So you've got to keep in mind that as we were filming

the fire ants, the bullet ant was so far

down the road at that point.

We had not even really seriously

considered doing this. - No.

- this pile of dirt thinking to yourselves,

is that really an ant hill?

That's interesting.

So these ant mounds are all over in Florida, Mario,

why don't you tell us a little bit about these?

Yeah, so fire ants are an introduced species to the US,

and if you grow up in Florida, you see one of those mounds,

you know there's trouble.

So they're somewhat inconspicuous if you

don't know what to look for.

Right.

It just looks like a pile of sand

because they're no ants on the outside.

Someone from Ohio, like these two guys--

Like you guys.

- we are walking around sometimes

in our sandals in our bare feet, and we're like,

ooh, there's some sand. - I'm like, no, watch it.

Yeah, and you don't know because there really aren't

many ants around the mounds.

Sure.

Yeah, it's very deceiving, but as you're going to see,

once you pop a little hole, let's see that.

I think it's actually coming up.

I promise you, there

are thousands of these fiery little ants

beneath the surface.

And there are thousands.

Mario, do you know about how many ants live in a colony?

Thousands.

Hundreds of thousands probably.

Yeah, thousands.

Because it goes deeper down in the ground too.

Most people don't realize that just because we disturbed

that ant down, they build those mounds

so quickly that mound probably would have

been rebuilt by the next day.

And once again, they are invasive species too.

I imagine the rain does a number.

Oh, yeah.

Every time it rains, they probably flood out.

In several places across the United States--

Yeah, you have to imagine that if you're down in Florida

and you're on vacation, I'm thinking,

oh, I'm going to just go out somewhere and have

a little picnic and you think to yourself,

oh, look, this mound is kind of sandy.

This might actually make a good place to sit, oh, bad idea.

These were cool macro shots though.

I mean, it's tough to really tell how small

these creatures are until you--

like, OK, here we go, right there.

That's a great example.

I'm going to get a clear shot.

It was really hard to hold onto one of these ants

without wanting to intrude or anything like that.

And you can see if you were to line these things up vertically

on the fingernail of a human, you

could probably pack five to eight

ants on a single finger nail.

It's just crazy.

I'll tell you what is particularly impressive, to me,

about fire ants, not only what they did to you,

but also, the fact that they're able to sting.

They can actually get through human skin being so small.

Mario, how is that even possible?

Sure.

Well, they do have a long stinger, and to Coyote's point,

they're small, but it's numbers that count.

So unlike the harvester ants, which

are large and intimidating looking, these guys are tiny.

And individually, you're like, oh,

that's not going to do much harm,

but they come at you with a swarm.

Yeah, with a forcive swarm that's

like a tidal wave of fire and insanity and dragons and chaos.

Let's keep rolling the video.

I don't know, Mario, I've been stung by one or two,

and it's still pretty bad.

Yeah, it'll still get you.

Here's my arbitrary,

would have become well-known selfie GoPro

shots, building suspense just before we get to it.

And I think we were just learning at this point

how to start to build that suspense in these episodes

to make the audience feel like, OK,

we're building to that moment.

And you can see here my tact review

and call that out of what I learned, so back that up just

to touch there.

Yeah, look at-- what I learned from the harvester ants was,

tuck your pant legs into your boots,

roll up your sleeves tight so that the ants

can't get in your pants.

But you didn't learn your lesson

about getting stung by ants.

Well, no.

But for the purpose of the science experiment,

I had to go through it.

It was just let's be a little more intelligent

about it this time around.

Trust me, guys, fire ants in your pants

would have been the worst thing.

For sure.

And anyone who is stung,

this not only causes searing pain,

but also causes the sting zones to swell.

Takes me back.

This was just not smart.

I was warning Coyote.

Science at its finest.

Let's talk about that real quick.

So here's a little back story that I

think is important that everyone in the Coyote Pack knows about.

So Coyote--

Wait, we should call this like responsible corner

with Mark and Mario like you guys talk about.

Coyote is like, I'm going to do this for science,

and you guys are like, let's talk about this responsibly.

So listen to these two for a second.

Right.

So everyone thinks that maybe it's Mario

and I putting you up to these things.

We actually ask you not to do them, as a matter of fact.

But in this circumstance, it's really interesting because you

don't get mosquito bite welts.

So therefore, I think you thought maybe

you had some sort of magical immunity

to ant stings or venom, in general.

And I remember Mario warning you saying,

Coyote, I've seen what happens when people get swarmed by fire

ants, and it is not pretty.

Don't do it.

And what did you say?

I said I'm the ant man.

Didn't you see the "Harvester Ant" episode?

I'm probably immune to fire ant stings.

Yeah, they may sting me, but nothing is going to happen.

Those little white pustulate things you're

talking about, not me, buddy.

Don't get mosquito bite welts.

Don't get bitten by deer flies, horseflies, you name it.

Usually, good to go.

Fire ants, they're tiny, not a problem.

That's right.

He was very confident, and I kept giving him the warning.

It's like, dude, if you go through this,

it's not going to be pretty.

He insisted, and well, we're going to see the results.

Yeah, and not pretty is an understatement,

guys, just so you know.

Boy am I about to get my fair share of them.

You build yourself up to these moments, and then you--

Oh, old go preps.

I think that's the HERO3, which was still

encapsulated inside of a plastic container,

so we had to use your camera to capture the audio

that was coming from this shot.

Yeah, now you just go do that by yourself,

and Mario and I hang out.

Well, the HERO6 captures amazing audio.

Don't want to get anaphylactic shock or anything.

I did OK with the harvester ants, so--

Pause it real quick.

So of course, harvester ant venom and fire ant

venom, completely different.

Right?

And there's a special property in the fire ant venom

that's going to actually give you some

of those things that have--

So the harvester ants, then were just a swelling,

whereas the fire ants were going to attack

my body completely differently.

Yeah, and we're going to see.

All right, here we go. Ready?

All right, go get in position.

I'll be there in a second.

All right, man.

Never under any circumstances

try to replicate what you are about to witness.

See, there's a responsible warning from me right there.

Yeah, don't do this, guys.

That's a big one.

Yeah, that's a big mound.

Now, I'm about to enter the strike zone with the fire ant.

You guys ready?

Strike zone?

It should have been the sting zone.

I don't know what I was thinking.

I remember I told you, dude, why don't you put

the GoPro in the mound itself?

Yeah, look at this.

Holy cow.

Look at them swarming.

Let's do that one more time.

Actually, I want to go back to that.

Look at the ant counter because we start the countdown

as soon as the GoPro gets in.

Look how quickly the ants are on.

Boom.

Fire ants for--

Three seconds, boom, they're coming.

They're voracious.

Way faster than the harvester ants.

Much faster, and they look

for soft spots in your skin.

I feel like they can sense in between the fingers

was definitely the worst.

Guys, feel your skin.

In between your fingers is much softer.

At that point, I was like, man, we've

only gone 20 seconds into this.

I got to get my hands out of here, and I failed.

I couldn't get it to 60 seconds.

I mean, maybe I could have, but I could feel

how bad it was already getting.

I remember you going into this being very confident,

and I think you had even mentioned at one point like,

is 60 seconds enough?

Maybe I should do two minutes.

You did say that.

There were small ants, and to one up the harvester ants,

because harvester ants, I did make it to 60 seconds,

and I was thinking, well, everybody

watching would be like, oh, come on,

go two minutes with fire ants.

Whew, good thing I didn't do that.

Deceiving, right?

Because of the size.

You all right?

Made it 40 seconds.

Hey, still very respectable.

Very respectful.

They're still on me.

Oh, my hands are on fire right now.

Yeah, what interesting feeling.

Tell me some initial thoughts right here.

Are you able to really concentrate on the pain?

Are you not trying to not concentrate on the pain?

I guess the squeezing of my fist was more like just

trying to contain and absorb the pain in one spot.

It was coming on like a searing that was building,

so it was almost like imagine putting your hands on a stove

and turning them on.

And as it begins to heat up, it's

getting more and more and more painful

as the onset takes hold.

Yeah, I know that feeling.

That's a bit.

When a mound of fire ants is disturbed,

thousands of them instantly swarm the invader.

Man, if you are an unsuspecting like lizard or frog

or something like that, that stumbled upon a mound

like this, you can see how it could

kill an animal very quickly.

Well, remember, during one

of our croc segments, I told you fire ants

actually prey upon hatchlings.

So they do kill large organisms.

Out as my brain was screaming,

get your hands out of that ant mound.

I love these shots where the ants continue to go

over the lens of the GoPro.

We sort of learn that through the harvester ants.

I was like, oh, we've got to get more GoPro

shots of the ants moving over.

You can kind of see here,

you see the welts forming.

And I believe you thought you were out of the woods.

You were like, that's it?

I was like, OK.

Respect fire ants.

I have some respect.

Now, I at least have welts.

This is more than a mosquito has ever done to me.

I thought I was pretty much out of the woods at this point.

Well, I told you that the worst is yet to come.

Yeah.

It's all over them.

Let's see what happens.

Actually, not too bad at this.

Not too bad. At this point.

This is like about five minutes after having my hands in there.

So we cut for a second, reset to get frame up,

get this out first shot.

Now, if you want to know which is worse,

the harvester ant or the fire ant--

So this was a good comparison.

Yeah, that's a good shot.

Look at the size difference.

Dramatic.

Obviously, this swarm was more

impressive with the fire ant.

This is much more worse than harvester ants.

Ah!

It still gets me.

That's my Sasquatch right there.

I think we may have overdone it with the slow mos in this.

- That's funny. - You like it?

I don't know. - I don't know.

You guys tell us.

Do you like the slow mos?

We haven't used them in a while, but I thought they

were funny back [inaudible]. - They crack me up.

I love them.

At the end of the day, the lesson

that we're all taking away from this

is that if you're out in nature and you're exploring,

always do your best to avoid any and all ant mounds.

True statement.

Look at how happy you look right there.

Well, you know, I seem a little more jovial

at this point than I probably should

have been considering what is about to happen to my hands.

And for over a week, I suffered through incredible scars--

Here it goes. Here it comes.

- which included flashes of pain.

So that was a little ways before we started to film after,

and there you go.

That's the next morning.

I was hideous, Mark.

Hideous.

Oh, I remember.

I mean, I have it burned into my memory

that morning we went to go get you for breakfast.

Coyote, are you ready for breakfast?

The room was all dark, and you're like, guys, I can't.

We were like, why not?

My hands, look.

And this was what you were covered in.

And we were like, oh, my goodness.

I mean, it was gross.

I looked like I contracted some sort of crazy disease.

I had to wear gloves for six weeks

before the pustulates went away.

Now, pause it for a second.

Before we get to this next part, pause it.

Mario, why do these things form into pustulates?

What's the science behind this?

Yeah, it's a good question.

You certainly didn't get those from the harvester ant, right?

So the venom of the fire ants is actually not water soluble,

so it doesn't dissolve easily throughout your system.

So it actually stays at the surface of your skin

and creates those little pustulates, which

as you realize are very itchy.

And if you pop them, will actually cause scarring.

Now, I did pop some of these pustulates

from just scratching.

It was so incredibly itchy.

And what I didn't realize is that they were going

to leave pockmarks in my hands, which then, in turn,

became scars, which at this point are gone.

I don't have scars from the fire ants anymore,

but wow, guys, it was quite the aftermath.

And this was in the summer, so you were wearing long-sleeved

shirts for weeks after this.

I remember we would go to the store

and you'd go to pay for something,

and you would roll your sleeve up all

over the tips of your fingers.

You're like, here you go.

And it was super weird. Remember?

It was like, why are you doing this?

And you would show people why.

Well, occasionally, somebody at like the grocery

store I go to buy a carton of milk

and I'd give them my debit card, and they're like, oh, what is--

what's on your hand?

And I'm like, hold on.

Let me explain, and then I'll be like blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah.

I do these biting sting things on YouTube,

and some people will be, oh, my gosh, you're that guy.

I mean, this was real early before we even

had a million subscribers on the channel,

but they would be like, oh, I guess that makes sense.

Ooh.

Like still, people think it's contagious.

It's not contagious if you're stung by fire ants.

You can't rub it on your friend and be like, ha, ha.

Now, you're going to have pustulates.

It doesn't work like that, but they are very embarrassing.

Yeah.

The pustulates were not the only gross thing about this video.

You had another trick up your sleeve,

or I should say, in your backpack--

That's right.

- which was--

Do you know the simplest remedy for neutralizing

ants stings in the field?

If not, make sure to click Watch Next.

That's, just in case anybody is wondering,

a bottle of Coyote's urine.

Yeah, but that's my own pee, so it's OK.

It's OK if it's your own pee.

- No, it's not. - Why not?

Gross.

Guys, that is gross, OK?

Well, there is some science to this, is there

not, wildlife biologist?

As gross as it seems, and it is gross,

there is some science to it.

Urine and vinegar, for example, help

neutralize venom in stings.

Vinegar.

Why did you not bring vinegar?

There's nothing entertaining about vinegar.

People want to see pee being dumped on your hands.

Is that what you guys want to see?

I figured it would work, and this episode, the aftermath

became extremely successful.

I mean, you had that great thumbnail that said 100% pee,

and gazillions of people clicked on it.

Yeah, but are you encouraging people to do that?

Well, in a worst case scenario,

if you stumble upon a fire mound and you get stung,

the best thing to do is pee on it.

And in honesty, it did neutralize a lot of the pain

right from the start.

Now, here's the back story on the pee.

I did read about this, and that morning,

I drank a bunch of orange juice right, so it's highly acidic.

And it would also make my pee a really

nice, perfect pee yellow color.

So it was hot pee going into the bottle,

then I put it in my backpack and walked

around the Everglades all day so it heated up even more.

So it's hot pee going in, hot pee coming out.

And trust me, you could smell it, couldn't you, Mark?

Oh, yeah.

You know, in all actuality, I thought you were

pulling our legs on this one.

I thought you had filled up a water bottle with a little bit

of food coloring.

You're like, oh, guys, I'm going to pour pee on my arms.

So I made you open it, and I could smell it immediately.

I thought it was apple juice, and I was about to drink it.

That sounds like a you problem, buddy.

But let's put it this way, for me,

it was a godsend because it immediately neutralized

all of the burning in my hands, but did it stop the pustulates?

Not so much.

So basically, I got two hands full of pee

and no real ultimate payoff.

And you got to ride back in the trunk of the truck.

Right.

Yeah, he was not allowed to ride up front with us.

So I've been counting, and I believe there are three

main takeaways from this video.

Number one, apparently, pee can neutralize

the sting of fire ants.

Gross.

Number two, look out for those sand mounds in Florida, guys.

Those aren't sands, those are fire ants.

And number three, Coyote Peterson

is not immune to insect venom.

Right?

Are you willing to admit that now?

I still get pustulates from fire ant stings as will you.

And can I add a number four?

Sure.

I told you so.

Oh.

In all fairness, he's right.

Anyone that's stung by fire ants will get pustulates,

but what this little science experiment did

was educate a lot of people, in fact, millions of people

about what to look for in the environment

when it comes to avoiding fire ants,

and of course, if you're stung, what to do to help

prevent some of that pain.

What it also did for us was begin to tee up the next rungs

of the insect sting pain index.

Now, believe it or not, the fire ant, for as small and mighty as

it is, only ranks at about a 2 on the scale.

So that means we had a long way to go before we

ultimately hit the bullet ant.

But the Coyote Pack was cheering us on,

and they said, well, Coyote, how about the cow killer?

And sure enough, that's kind of what came up next.

But we won't talk about that in this episode.

Instead, we'll just encourage you guys

not to pee on each other, OK?

It's probably a good after-school message or

something like that, isn't it?

Sure.

Unless, of course, you're stung by fire ants, right?

Maybe?

What if you didn't have to pee,

would you have aloud Mark to pee on you?

Let's just wrap this up.

That's what I'm saying.

Let's go to the outro at this point.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

I'm Mark Vins.

I'm Mario Aldecoa.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on that's base camp adventure.

When I was a kid,

nothing was more terrifying than a scorpion.

Armed with menacing pinchers, capable of skittering up walls,

and topped off with a venomous stinger,

these eight-legged arachnids were textbook

examples of a living nightmare.

I've seen things you wouldn't believe.

As an adult, I forced myself

to face the fear of scorpions by being intentionally

stung by one in 2014.

Then in 2017, for some crazy reason,

I decided to do it again with two scorpions.

Wowsa!

Why in the world would anyone want to be stung by scorpions?

The only justifiable answer is that I love to entertain

and educate the Coyote Pack.

Man, my finger is burning. You OK?

Yeah.

Tonight we are back in Arizona, the scorpion capital

of the Southwest, and I am carefully

rummaging around in the debris that surrounds

an abandoned gold mine.

This is the perfect setting to find

a variety of invertebrate nightmares,

but when it comes to finding scorpions,

nothing is more helpful than the right flashlight.

So a normal flashlight is perfect for seeing things

like Gila monsters, snakes, and tarantulas,

but when it comes to finding scorpions,

the best tool that you can use is a black light.

That coloration will cause these arachnids to luminesce.

And all of this wood, is the perfect spot for us to search

for that creepy crawly.

Flipping over all these old crates

is going to be quite the challenge.

Let's see what we could find.

Aside from using the right light, the only thing you need

is a little patience, and then before you know it,

a scorpion will magically appear.

Oh, right there.

Look at that.

Giant desert hairy scorpion right on the edge of that pipe.

See how they glow?

Luminescent.

That is perfect.

You just turn a corner like that,

and probably the last thing most people want to see

is a giant desert hairy scorpion,

but that is exactly what we were looking for.

Hunker down in ambush mode.

Oh, now it's on the move.

This is not a species that has a super toxic sting.

It's about equivalent to a honeybee,

and I can't pick this up of my fingers,

but I want to get it right where the telson meets

that first knuckle of the tail.

It is a delicate little balance, and--

you stop right there, and I don't want

to get stuck in the process.

Let's see.

Stay.

Stay.

Oh, he's getting into strike mode.

This is so nerve wracking to pick up one of these arachnids,

even though I know that it's not a super potent sting.

I'm going to actually just use these little pieces of plant

to pin it down slightly.

Keep that like that.

And sometimes you just have to commit.

Got it.

Ah!

So the pinchers won't do you much harm.

It's really just that stinger that you have to watch out for.

But it's such a cool thing the way that they luminesce.

Check that out.

Just glowing bright yellowish green.

And that's why I say using this light to identify

these scorpions is so obvious.

The second you see a scorpion glowing like that,

you know exactly what it is.

But when it's just out there on the ground like this,

it's completely camouflaged.

And with a normal flashlight, you

would barely even be able to tell

that that creature was there.

So cool.

The body is actually very, very rigid.

You may think that the scorpion is squishy,

but this exoskeleton is very, very hard.

So by holding it at this spot right here, where

the tail meets the telson, the telson

is where all the venom is kept that then

runs into the stinger.

It is causing this animal no discomfort in any way

whatsoever.

In fact, you'd have to really stomp down

on something like this with a boot

to even stand a chance of crushing it.

Very, very durable animal.

These scorpions are feasting on a variety of small insects,

other arachnids.

They have these front pincers which they used

to grab onto their prey, and then they

will swing that stinger forward and inflict

a sting, inject that venom, and that's

how they neutralize their prey.

And they do get bigger than this,

and a larger giant desert hairy will even

take things like small rodents.

Now, there are three very distinct scorpion species that

are here in the Southwest-- the giant desert hairy, which

is the largest; the stripe-tailed scorpion,

which is rather small; and then the bark scorpion.

The bark scorpion is the most potent,

and a sting from that scorpion will, without question,

put you in the hospital.

On a scale of 1 to 5 when it comes

to potency of this potentially dangerous desert dweller,

I would only rank the giant desert hairy as a 2.

While it is a painful sting, it is not something

that's going to kill you.

The bark scorpion, on the other hand, would rank as a 5.

It is one of the most painful and most dangerous

stings that's out here in the Southwest.

What a cool creature.

All right, let's set the scorpion

back down into the sand.

Let's light it up and let it go.

Here we go.

Ready?

1, 2, 3.

There you go, buddy.

For the most part, these arachnids

want to be left alone, and unless you

try to interact with them, it's unlikely that you will ever

feel the wrath of their sting.