Casting a Fire Ant Colony with Molten Aluminum

An amazing sculpture is made by pouring molten aluminum into a fire ant colony. The resulting cast is huge, weighing 17.9 lbs. and reaching a depth of 18 inches.

This is the full casting video which was recently shown in part on the Science Channel show Outrageous Acts of Science (Season 3, Episode 4 "Born to Be Wild").

These are the red imported fire ants (RIFA) which are harmful to the environment and their nests are exterminated by the millions in the United States using poisons, gasoline and fire, boiling water, and very rarely molten aluminum.

From Wikipedia: "Researchers have also been experimenting with extreme temperature change to exterminate RIFAs [red imported fire ants], such as injecting liquid nitrogen or pressurized steam into RIFA nests. Besides using hot steam, pouring boiling water into ant mounds has been found effective in exterminating their nests."

I recently did a casual survey and found that I have at least 120 of these colonies within an area of approximately three acres.

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