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 mandables.

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 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.

Due to their high fire resistance, fire damage based weapons like the flamer and the Shishkebab will have little effect on them.

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 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 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.

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.