During the 40s Costa Rica’s was overthrown by Pepe Figueres, a revolutionary whose first act as chief of state was to abolish the military. To this very day his legacy remains evident in the absence of a national fighting force.
But Costa Rica does have an army. Right now there are battalions of disciplined killers camped out in our forests. They use chemical weapons and ruthless tactics against their victims and they butcher all those who fail to escape.
Don’t worry though; you are most unlikely to become one of their causalities, unless you happen to be an insect or small animal. This is no force of big men with fearsome stings. A colony can number half a million, and hunting in unison they flow across the forest floor like a black river, consuming anything in their path. Giant cockroaches, lizards, small snakes, tarantulas, scorpions and all manner of creepy crawlies flee for their lives.
It can be quite a disconcerting sight! Although Hollywood B-movies have depicted killer ants stripping humans to the bone, they are, in fact incapable of such feats. Their jaws are far too weak to scythe through human flesh.
So sit back and enjoy the show!
Escorting every army ant swarm you will find a gaggle of twittering little birds. These specialists take advantage of the mayhem by scooping up the refugees as they bolt from their hiding places. It’s a chaotic smörgåsbord on the move.
If you take the time to follow a swarm to its rear, you will find be carrying dead insects to their nest where hungry youngsters wait. At the source you will find a giant seething cluster of ants; a temporary home, constructed from their own living bodies. Every night, the entire colony breaks camp and migrates to a new location, for it they remained at a permanent site they would soon they would soon eat everything and the starve.
The migration and swarm raids are as impressive as any lion hunt or wildebeest exodus but please do take my advice: don’t get too close. The pain of a hundred angry soldiers running amok in your trousers will put a whole new twist on the saying “ants in yer pants.”
People and Society 
