The Scary World of Creepy Crawlies BBC Earth Kids

Slugs are fair game for driver ants. They don't run away. The first ant makes contact. And then another. Others come running. The slug tries to sit out the attack. There are so many ants. The victim uses the only escape route left to it. The ants fall too. They often use this unconventional way to get down from the trees. But the unfortunate slug has fallen from the frying pan into the fire. An awful lot of ants are milling about down here. They smother their prey. But the slug has a trick up its sleeve. It may be slow, but it's well protected. Its entire body is covered in a thick and noxious slime. It's so glutinous that once their jaws are in, they can't get them out. Other ants seem to give a helping hand. But this one is firmly stuck. Try as she might, she just can't get away. For some, it's not just their jaws that are trapped. She's almost free. Then something remarkable happens. Some of the workers begin to bring particles of soil and place them on the slug. In this way, the slime is soaked up like ink on blotting paper. Gradually, the slug disappears under a writhing mass of earth and ants. With its protective coat neutralized, the ants attack the slug underneath. Slowly, the victim is sliced up. After 17 years underground, creatures are stirring. The nymphs of the periodical cicada have been biding their time. Now they march like zombies towards the nearest tree and start to climb. At first, there are merely thousands. But soon, more than a billion swarm all over the forest. The biggest insect emergence on the planet is underway. They invade the upper branches where they climb out of their external skeletons and assume their adult winged form. At first, they're white and soft. But they have until dawn to complete their transformation. After an absence of 17 years, the forest is now overrun by cicadas. The adults are clumsy and very edible. For turtles and other inhabitants of the forest, this is a feast they're lucky to see once in their lifetime. And they gorge themselves while they can. Times have never been so good. The cicadas have no defenses and virtually offer themselves to their attackers. The stream of insects is so relentless that soon all the predators are full to the point of bursting. And still the cicadas come. With the predators overwhelmed, the survivors can achieve their purpose. After mating, the adults lay their eggs and then their job is done. In just a few days, they will all die and the forest will fall silent. The cicadas here will not be heard again for another 17 years. When the air itself becomes saturated and the temperature is just right, rare giants emerge. A poelophanta snail. It can grow to the size of a man's fist. So rare, they can only be filmed in captivity, where their extraordinary behavior is revealed. It's still a mystery as to exactly how they track down their food. But one thing is for sure. This snail has unusual tastes and revolting table manners. Its mouth envelops and suffocates the earthworm. It's sucked down like spaghetti. For anything bigger, it's got 6,000 teeth ready to shred the next meal. In this super-saturated environment, this specialized snail is the ultimate predator. An oogpster beetle in South Africa. He hunts ants. Eating ants may give him more than just nourishment. He may get something else from them that helps him fight his enemies. The ants launch a counterattack and nip his ankles, but he simply kicks them out of the way. The valiant ants drive him off, straight into real danger. A mongoose. It's inquisitive, but it's also wary of the oogpster. A black-and-white pattern is a warning signal. The beetle takes aim and fires formic acid straight at the mongoose's eyes and mouth. The beetle probably collected this acid from the ants. It certainly makes the beetle itself very distasteful, and that, in turn, makes it worth mimicking. This defenseless little lizard carries the beetle's warning pattern. It also imitates the way the beetle runs. Not particularly well, it's true, but well enough to fool predators into thinking it just might be an acid-firing beetle. All kinds of insects have developed chemical weapons. A pair of devilrider stick insects. They fire bitter-tasting oils, terpenes, European wood ants under attack from a hungry crow. They fire the sort of acid that gives nettles their sting, so this is like one of us falling into a nettle patch. But the master of chemical warfare is the bombardier beetle. It can create a chemical reaction within its body so violent that boiling caustic liquid explodes out of its abdomen. By pulsing the jet 500 times a second, it keeps its rear end just cool enough to prevent it being cooked. Spider silk with the scent of a female. He just needs to follow it wherever it leads him. Other males have gone on the same quest and have come to a grisly end. Here's the female, and she doesn't look very amorous. In fact, she kills every male who doesn't match up to her expectations. What can he do to win her over? Dance. Dance for his life. He will need a show-stopping trick to avoid becoming lunch. With his fan unfurled, he begins an ever more complicated series of dance moves to try and seduce her. At last, she succumbs to his advances and allows him to mate with her. He matched her expectations. But she kills him anyway. There is no other species on the planet that responds as quickly and as dramatically to the good times as the desert locust. Eggs that have remained in the ground for 20 years begin to hatch. The young locusts are known as hoppers, for at this stage they're flightless. They find new feeding grounds by following the smell of sprouting grass. Normally, it takes four weeks for hoppers to become adults, but when the conditions are right, as now, their development switches to the fast track. As the vegetation in one place begins to run out, the winged adults release pheromones, scent messages, which tell others in the group that they must move on. And when groups merge, they form a swarm. A locust eats its entire body weight every day, and a whole swarm can consume literally hundreds of tons of vegetation. They have to keep on moving. The swarm travels with the wind. It's the most energy-saving way of flying. Following the flow of wind means that they're always heading toward areas of low pressure, places where wind meets rain and vegetation starts to grow. As they fly, swarms join up with other swarms to form gigantic plagues several billion strong and as much as 40 miles wide. They will consume every edible thing that lies in their path. This is one of planet Earth's greatest spectacles. It's rarely seen on this scale, and it won't last long. Once the food has gone, the steady roar of a billion beating locust wings will once again be replaced by nothing more than the sound of the desert wind. By late summer, the corral tanks contain the only standing water for kilometers around. The canyon's more mobile insects are drawn to this one last oasis. For those able to travel, this water is a lifesaver. Bees and wasps can carry the water back to their distant nests. But this tiny pool of water lies just beyond the boundary of the corral colony's territory. With no end in sight, such desperate times call for desperate measures. As the search widens, a small group of corral workers head towards the trough. This is unfamiliar ground for them, or disaster. Near the trough, they stumble across other honey ants, and then a nest entrance. It's only 40 meters from the corral colony, but that's been enough to keep these two nests in mutual ignorance for all these years. These new honey ants are unlike any the corral workers have encountered before. They are big and aggressive. Instead of backing down, they meet the challenge head-on, and the encounter begins to escalate. For the first time in its history, the corral colony may have met its match. Sensing the worst, the corral workers begin to fall back towards their own nest. The trough workers go on the offensive. The retreat quickly turns into a rout. Stragglers are picked off. The fight is carried right to the entrance of the corral colony. Even here on their own doorstep, they can't hold their ground. The attacking trough workers drive on into the nest. As news of the attack reaches the corral queen, she withdraws to the deepest chambers. Her entourage of nurses in tow, carrying the valuable brood. The battle spreads down into the tunnels. Slowly, inexorably, it spreads down through the shafts towards the deeper part of the nest. Cleats are slaughtered, or dragged away to be eaten later. Some dead workers are carried off for processing. The invaders take everything from eggs to newborns. Many are eaten where they fall. They empty chamber after chamber. Finally, the invaders overcome the last resistance and break through into the royal bunker. The corral queen and her broods are trapped and completely helpless. Held by each leg, the queen is on the rack. First stretched, then dismembered. It is a gruesome and ignominious end for this once great ruler. In just a few hours, the corral colony, the nest, emptied. Too late for the corral colony. The drought finally breaks. A great storm heralded the start of the corral queen's story. And now, eight years later, another marks its brutal end. But somewhere out in the desert, the queen's royal daughters are fighting their own battles, continuing her dynasty. Yellow hornets are a little smaller than the giants, but there are 1,500 of them in this nest. They outnumber the giants five to one. Yet the queen's workers are driven to fight. Giants are outnumbered, and each attacks alone. It's not a good strategy. The yellows dispatch giant after giant with a lethal sting to the back of the neck. It's the only chink in a giant hornet's armor. Today's battle is lost. But this is a war of attrition. The giants begin a new wave of attacks. And this time, they gain control of the nest envelope. A breach is made in the yellow hornet's defenses. The yellows begin to tear down their own walls in hopeless panic. Finally, their only option is desertion. Victory comes at a terrible cost. But the rewards to the queen are enormous. The giant hornet warriors work through the abandoned nest, ripping out food. The bounty they bring back will be enough to fuel the young males and queens through metamorphosis. He starts his search. A female is likely to be on a tree trunk. But trees in this part of the world are very tall. His search could be a long one. Unfortunately for him, she is 25 meters above him. Near the top. She has more normal-sized jaws. But then, she only needs them for feeding. But he needs immense jaws for fighting. Because there are other males around with the same mission. Sheer strength is not enough in these battles. The technique is to reach over your opponent's head and hook your jaws under his wing covers. That's why his jaws are so long and have that odd shape. He's got the grip. Now he has to lift. And that needs strength. Another lift is needed. And that's that. Beetle armor is strong, so he bounces. The winner climbs on. There are more males ready to fight him up here. And here she is at last. But she doesn't seem to be in the mood. So now he has to use his great jaws as a restraining cage. Success at last. But the hurling habit dies hard. The tusked weta is New Zealand's equivalent of a mouse. And a worthy snack for a foraging pig. With pigs snuffling close behind, there is only one place to go. And it's the last place you would expect. This weta is an escape artist. The pigs can't see or smell him when he's underwater. He can stay under for up to 10 minutes. And now the coast is clear. 80 million years of isolation have endowed this ancient creature with extraordinary survival skills.