This ant's potent venom can induce shamanic visions.

Disclaimer: this is for historical education only; I take no responsibility for misuse of the information provided.

The venom does not contain any hallucinogenic compound and the doses used were near-fatal.

Note: the Indigenous peoples mentioned are still living cultures and when I use past tense it is to describe practices in a historical context.

REFERENCES
- Blackburn, T. 1976. A query regarding the possible hallucinogenic effects of ant ingestion in south-central California. The Journal of California Anthropology 3(2): 78-81.
- Groark, K. P. 1996. Ritual and therapeutic use of “hallucinogenic” harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex) in native south-central California. Journal of Ethnobiology 16(1): 1-29.
- Schmidt, J. O. and M. S. Blum. 1978. A harvester ant venom: chemistry and pharmacology. Science, New Series 200(4345): 1064-1066.

#ethnoentomology #entomology #foraging #naturalremedies #ancientways