Video: Explorer Pat Spain Regrets Wearing Gloves of Venomous Ants
Posted on March 6, 2011
Explorer Pat Spain is searching the globe for mythical creatures. His search is part of National Geographic's Beast Hunter show.
Pat Spain withstands the initial pain, but the pain keeps building once the gloves are removed.
Spain is trying to find a huge one-eyed monster in the Amazon, so he needed to gain the confidence of the local tribes. To win them over he took part in an initiation ritual, which involves wearing gloves lined with venomous bullet ants. The bullet ants, or Paraponera, have an extremely painful sting that lasts 24 hours. The bullet ant sting has a 4+ rating on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. The pain from a bullet ant sting is described as being like "fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch rusty nail in your heel."
