Molten Aluminum Turns Ant Colonies Into Art (VIDEO)

Fire ants get a bad rap--and for good reason. The pesky little brutes are notorious for their biting, stinging ways--and, as millions of Americans discover each year, their stings can be extremely painful, even deadly. And then there's the bugs' economic cost: in the U.S. alone, fire ants cost us about $1 billion a year .

Given all the harm fire ants cause, you'd never guess that they're also capable of great art. At least they are with a little help from an artist with a bucket of molten aluminum and access to one of their giant mounds.

Check out the video above to see the result of the ant-artist collaboration. As you'll see, it's quite beautiful--though the artist has been stung by critics who call the process beastly.

I disabled comments because I'm sick of your bickering, the artist wrote in the video's description on YouTube. Also, I couldn't get YouTube to stop sending me an email every time someone posted What if I poured aluminum in your house for the 100th time.