Restless and ravenous, army ant colonies are nature's Mongol hordes. They kill and eat anything in their way, digesting it even as they tear it apart!

Army ants are nature's Mongol hordes: always on the move and ravaging everyone in their path.

You can only run from them.

And don't waste time...because when an ant colony is on the move they rule the road.

Anything that stands in their way will be overwhelmed.

Army ants have large, scissor-like jaws called mandibles.

They use these weapons to slice their prey apart.

They don't waste time eating and then digesting.

While they are dicing up their prey, they spread a dissolving acid.

Once flesh, muscles and tendons melt down to a liquidized matter, they eat it and keep going.

The only defense is not moving a muscle. The solider army ants are nearly blind. About all they can distinguish is light and darkness. So they detect prey by movement.

This patrol is heading out to forage.

If the scouts find food, they'll relay the news via scent- back to the nest, so the colony can mobilize.

This beetle is six times the size of one ant...but no match for an army.

Some prey isn't eaten on the spot, but carved into pieces and toted back to the colony. It's like slaves building the pyramids: get enough of them, and they can haul almost anything.

They're so numerous, the total weight of the world's ants roughly equals the weight of humanity.

Their numbers make them a natural insecticide...able to exterminate an entire patch of ground...at least till they move on.