| “ | Fascinating, isn't it?...The smoking, it causes the fire ants to leave their homes, you see? | ” |
–Arpid about the fire ants, The Scorpion King | ||
Fire ants are small, six-legged insects that will commonly eat any living creature found, appearing usually in vast swarms on the ground.
Biology[]
Fire ants are communal insects that construct a nest below ground level in the form of a small dirt hill. Fire ants consume living creatures as well as carrion by swarming on their victims and biting off small pieces of flesh. Fire ants release acid from their abdomens when attacked or when attacking, resulting in their namesake.
Several fire ant mounds were located in the Egyptian deserts, where they were to be used to kill the warrior Mathayus and a horse thief named Arpid, both of whom were buried, their heads sticking out so that the ants would eat them alive. Arpid managed to escape, knocking out the guards that smoked the anthills, causing the ants to burst out angrily, and one of the guards broke through an anthill, causing thousands of the carnivorous insects to attack him. After receiving a promise from Mathayus that he would be spared and brought along on his adventures, Arpid took a swig from a flagon of yak urine that one guard was drinking from and spat it out onto a torch in the direction of the ant swarms, burning them up.
Behind the Scenes[]
The fire ants shown in the film were created by computer graphic imagery.
Appearances[]
- The Scorpion King (First appearance)