By Andrew Freedman From Mashable

Fire ants may be painful when they bite (and are terrible news for homeowners), but you have to give them credit: They’re survivors.

Facing biblical rains and historic flooding in South Carolina this week, giant rafts of fire ants have been spotted floating together in roving ant islands. This behavior allows entire colonies of fire ants to survive the floods, provided they can find dry land within a few days.

Fire ants can assemble these rafts on short notice — reportedly in as few as 100 seconds — and keep thousands or more safe for days to weeks, according to a 2011 study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study found that while a single fire ant struggles in water, a group of fire ants can float for days to weeks.

Scientists at the Georgia Tech used timelapse photography to investigate how fire ants build their waterproof ant rafts.

The study found that ants can considerably “enhance their water repellency by linking their bodies together, a process analogous to the weaving of a waterproof fabric.” It also concluded that the ants along the edge of the raft may not be there by choice.

“Central to the construction process is the trapping of ants at the raft edge by their neighbors, suggesting that some ‘cooperative’ behaviors may rely upon coercion,” the study read.

While an individual ant has a moderately hydrophobic, or water-repellent, outer covering, a large raft of fire ants are far more water-repellent a large raft of fire ants are far more water-repellent, the study found.

The ant rafts aren’t indestructible, however. Any material that breaks up the surface tension of water, including plain soap, can cause them to sink.

Ants in soapy water will struggle to swim and eventually sink, the study found.

IMAGE: Fire ants float together near the shore of Lewisville Lake and Sycamore Bend Park, Friday, May 22, 2015, in Hickory Creek, Texas. IMAGE: AL KEY/THE DENTON RECORD-CHRONICLE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

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