Fire ant (Fallout 3)

Fire ants are creatures living in the Capital Wasteland in 2277. They are a variation of giant ants that have been genetically modified, and their name comes from their ability to expell a flammable acid from their mandibles.

Biology
Fire ants have a hard, red-orange carapace that protects their body from environmental factors. They live in enormous underground colonies where they eat, sleep, and mate with the queen. Fire ants are omnivorous, using their pyrosis, which stems from a mutated venom gland, to kill live prey, but they will also eat what little vegetation they can find, when necessary.

Gameplay attributes
Fire ants like to attack from range with a fire breath attack (which has a surprisingly long effective range). The ants seem to have a minimum range at which they could breathe fire. If you get extremely close to the ants, they will constantly try to move backwards, letting off a spurt of flame or two. Additionally, they have a slow turn speed.

If their antennae are hit and crippled, they will become frenzied. Once a fire ant becomes frenzied, it will attack other nearby fire ants and other non-player characters. Once attacked by another ant, the attacked ant will defend itself, damaging the attacking ant. When the frenzied ant kills something, the player gains the appropriate experience of that kill.

Due to their high Fire Resistance, fire damage based weapons like the flamer and the Shishkebab will have little effect on them. This contributes to a fight between two fire ant soldiers lasting about 25 seconds.

Fire ant soldier
Fire ant soldiers are the second lowest ranked ant in the fire ant colony. Their job is to protect their area from intruders. They are very aggressive and will attack humans, as well as other creatures on sight. They are relatively easy to defeat at medium levels or with a well equipped low level character.

Fire ant warrior
Fire ant warriors are the predominant variety of ant you will encounter in Grayditch and in the Marigold Station at higher levels. They have a high amount of HP and high attack damage.

Fire ant worker
Fire ant workers are the backbone for the ant community's infrastructure. As the name implies, they dig tunnels and care for the eggs. However, they will attack intruders if they are threatened. They are relatively weak compared to fire ant soldiers.

Fire ant nest guardian
Fire ant nest guardians are unique versions of fire ant warriors. There are only five of these ants protecting the queen. Doctor Lesko refers to these ants as "The Queen's Quintet".

Marigold ant queen
This ant queen is found in the queen ant's hatchery. Like the others in the game, she is slow and has a ranged acid spitting attack that does a fair amount of damage. She cannot spit fire because Doctor Lesko's experiment affected only her eggs. The queen has a very high amount of HP and is considered a "boss" enemy in the game.

A flaming version of the globs of spit, exclusively for the Marigold fire ant queen.

Related quests

 * Those!
 * Nectar Collecting for Fun and Profit

Appearances
Fire ants appear in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes
"Pyrosis" is actually the medical term for heartburn.