Scientists have made a terrible, yet fascinating, discovery: fire ants can form into living towers to survive flooding.  SEE ALSO: Giant rafts of fire ants are somehow surviving South Carolina floods The insects have shown their survivor instincts before by forming rafts made up of thousands of ants, as seen above in footage captured in Texas last month.  These bugs are determined to survive — and it doesn't just stop at rafts. A study out Wednesday from researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology found fire ants cluster together to form towers of hundreds of thousands of ants more than 30 ants high, all to escape floods. The study, published in
Royal Society Open Science
, says the ants have evolved to link their bodies to keep colonies together. Sticky pads at the bottom of their feet help build the structures that protect the bugs from rain and water. In their lab, the researchers filmed ants building 26 different towers to see how they built the structures without getting crushed and to see what the towers looked like. They found that it took the ants about 25 minutes to build the towers that are wider at the bottom than at the top. It appears fire ants emulate structures like the Eiffel Tower in Paris and not your typical skyscraper. Fire ants form a tower in a Louisiana swamp.Image: royal society open science
The New York Times put together a video about the ants' building skills, which grossed out and simultaneously impressed most of the internet. Fire ants are probably the only animal I hate a little bit. But I def respect them https://t.co/GoALfrqEvN — Lea Grie (@LeaGrie) July 12, 2017 I didn't think I'd make it thru this video cause shit like this makes me itch but my inner nerd wouldn't let me look away https://t.co/Zzt0QhOedI — Liv Yang (@LIVxWEST) July 12, 2017 This is honestly my worst nightmare. https://t.co/hh3EPVA0P1 — Katherine McCully (@skmccully) July 12, 2017  Sleep tight. 
Video credit: Facebook/Ron Wooten via Storyful. WATCH: This prosthetic is an extra thumb you never knew you needed