‘It was hell. I’ve never seen anything like it. That night was crazy. It was just a nightmare.’
Paul Rosolie tells MailOnline Travel about the night in the Peruvian Amazon when leafcutter ants stole his tent, while he was inside, cutting through the nylon fabric with their pincers and carrying the pieces into the night.
The intrepid American explorer, conservationist and author captured the moment on camera and posted the images on his Instagram account with a caption that read: “Yet another reason why you think you want my job.” The walls have been broken and I am trapped inside a multi-species insect festival.
Multiple species?
Paul reveals that termites, moths, mosquitoes, a millipede and “insects I can’t even identify” entered through the “fist-sized holes” created by the ants. The footage ends with Paul looking at a tarantula that also entered.
Paul Rosolie tells MailOnline Travel about the night in the Peruvian Amazon when leafcutter ants stole his tent, while he was inside. Paul captured the drama on camera for posterity and posted the footage to his Instagram account (above).
Paul Rosolie is an intrepid American explorer, conservationist, and author.
Paul, in a Zoom chat with MailOnline, continues: ‘Before, everything was great. We were on a sandy beach next to a stream. Everything was clear. We caught a fish, cooked it in bamboo and then went to sleep. And then, around midnight, disaster.
‘It was the first night I used that very expensive, super light tent. It had to be thrown away. I took it to a seamstress at the market and she said, “There’s no way to rescue it.”
Did Paul try to evict the intruders?
“Nothing worked,” he says. “I tried insect repellent, made a circle of gasoline around the tent and then lit it to try to protect it. The ants didn’t care. I think that cheered them up.”
Pablo leaf cutter experience highlights how unsettling jungle exploration can be, even for experienced explorers like him.
How are beginners doing in the jungle? Any common mistakes?
Paul says: ‘Where to start! Going into the depths of the Amazon is like going to Antarctica or Everest. It’s super intense.
Recalling the ant invasion, Paul tells MailOnline: “It was hell.” I’ve never seen anything like it. That night was crazy. It was just a nightmare
Paul said he “tried bug spray” and “walked a circle of gasoline around the tent and then turned it on to try to protect it.” The result? ‘The ants didn’t care’
Paul reveals ‘very expensive, super light tent’ was a total loss
‘I have seen people fall into the mud up to their necks and barely be able to get out. I’ve seen people take their first swing with a machete and hit a hive full of wasps and get covered in stings and have to be evacuated and taken to a hospital.
‘And the things that will catch you? Snakes, jaguars, anacondas? No. A lot of the things that will really get you are things like bullet ants.
“You bend down to pick up a piece of flower, and there’s a bullet ant that stings your hand, and then for the next two days you have a fever and a headache, and all your glands are swollen and you have this stabbing pain all over your body. body and you feel like you’ve been shot.
Paul reveals that termites, moths, mosquitoes, a millipede and “insects I can’t even identify” entered through the “fist-sized holes” created by the ants. The Instagram footage ends with Paul looking at a tarantula that also entered.
Does Paul manage to enjoy the jungles?
He says, laughing: ‘It’s my favorite place in the world. I love them. There is so much beautiful life. But you need to know the rules of this very alternative reality.
‘For example, there are some trees that have spikes as long as your forearm. So if you were to run blindly through the woods because a bullet ant stung you on the butt, you could impale yourself on a tree so badly that you would die.
‘One of the worst mistakes is not realizing that you have to stay clean in the jungle. You have to wash your clothes. “You can’t just sweat all day and then leave your clothes off and then put them back on.”
Because?
“The robot flies,” says Paul.
Flies can lay eggs on sweaty clothing, and mosquitoes lay them too, and the larvae can get under the skin and “grow larger than an almond.”
Paul adds: “They will eat you while they are on your skin.” And you can’t just take them out. Some people have surgery to remove them.’
Paul has dedicated his life to saving the Amazon from destruction, in part through his organization ‘Junglekeepers’, which is helping to conserve threatened habitat in the ‘vitally important’ Madre de Dios region of the Peruvian Amazon (above) .
Despite all the dangers and, as Gen Z would say, the “icks,” Paul has dedicated his life to saving the Amazon from destruction, in part through his organization “Junglekeepers,” which is helping to conserve the threatened habitat in the “vitally important” area. ‘Madre de Dios Region in the Peruvian Amazon: ‘one of the most pristine and most biodiverse areas on the planet’.
Paul describes the Amazon as “the most important terrestrial biodiversity on our planet.”
He explains: ‘It creates climate stability, hosts undiscovered medicines, indigenous communities and endangered species. It is one of the most important gifts we have on Earth. “If we lost the Amazon, it would immediately have catastrophic post-apocalyptic global consequences.”
A way that jungle guardians The best way to fight deforestation is to persuade loggers to change careers and become foresters.
Paul explains: “We interview loggers and say, ‘Hey, could you please stop cutting down the rainforest? And we’ll pay them to be rangers.”
And they are happy to make the change. Most of those loggers are very nice local people with families who just need a job, and that’s why they’re logging.
“And then what happens is that they see conservation as something that led them to a better life, so it becomes part of their culture to protect the Amazon rainforest, the biological crown jewel of the earth, at all costs.”
To learn more about Paul, visit him on Instagram at www.instagram.com/paulrosolie on Twitter (‘X’) on x.com/paulrosolie and on YouTube here – www.youtube.com/@junglekeeper. To learn more about Junglekeepers, visit www.junglekeepers.org.
Paul has published an audiobook about his adventures in the Amazon. Madre de Dios: An extraordinary journey to the unexplored tributaries of the Western Amazon.
