Fire ants aren’t exactly beloved creatures. Imagine the nightmare of seeing these creepy crawlers swarm together in water to form a giant, floating mound. This living raft seemingly floats towards you—the nearest body of land for these creatures to grab onto.

Interestingly, ant rafts are a common occurrence in the Southern United States. In fact, Reddit user Clamdilicus captured a picture of this incredible phenomena during North Carolina’s recent flash flood:

Reddit user Clamdilicus

One Reddit user describes the scene :

While this may look terrifying as hell, it’s actually pretty cool when you find out how these resourceful little critters are able to float.

This Reddit user agrees:

Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) are an invasive species that infested the American South. But these little guys are native to the rainforests of Brazil, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Since the rainforests are prone to frequent flooding, fire ants evolved to learn the ability to form rafts and other structures to stay alive. In just under two minutes, thousands—if not millions—of ants can form a raft. Interestingly, a single ant will drown in water without a colony.

“The raft is one of the longest-lasting structures, allowing ants to sail upon it for months as they migrate and colonize new lands,” writes the study’s author David Hu.

How are they able to stay afloat?

Luckily for them, fire ant exoskeletons are somewhat waterproof. This allows them to trap an air bubble around their bodies, which helps them float and breathe.

Nathan J. Mlot/PNAS

The fire ants link together by attaching their legs to their neighbors or—eek—biting each other with a force that can be up to 400 times greater than their bodyweight.

“The mandibular grip requires particular care to minimize pain to the recipient of the bite,” says Hu.

Clearly, it’s not easy being an ant. But life is a lot tougher for male fire ants: Male ants are kicked out of older rafts, Thompson Rivers University Entomologist Dr. Robert J. Higgins, shares with Upvoted. The older the raft, the more males are forced to “walk the plank” so to speak.

This is because of an “odd aspect of ant gender discrimination,” he adds. Unlike humans, male fire ants only share 1/4 of their genes with their sisters. While female share 3/4 of their genes with other females.

“If the situation is dire, it appears the sisters recognize they are better off saving those most closely related to them… other females,” he explains.

This isn’t the only problem ants have. When water is polluted—with stuff like detergents and soaps—ant rafts can’t stay afloat. Thus, everybody ends up drowning.

And if you just so happen to find yourself near an ant raft, Higgins doesn’t recommend poking it, considering it will be an, um, unpleasant experience to say the least.

“I can only say that if you are a curious person and determined to directly investigate a fire ant raft, you won’t do that twice. If the rafts encounter any solid substance, they will begin to explore that surface…human or land,” Higgins says.