WATCH: Mittens filled with bullet ants cause intense pain

Is this where Frank Herbert got his idea for the pain box in Dune?

When can a man declare that he is already a man? How's this for a manhood initiation? A tribe in the Amazon forest has you put your hand into a glove that has bullet ants.

"These ants look like black, wingless wasps and their length can range between half-an-inch to an inch. The scarier thing about this bullet ant's sting is the toxins, neurotoxin and poneratoxin, which freeze the transmission of information by the nerve cells. The venom also causes uncontrollable shaking and throbbing pain that'll last for days. The scariest is, the Mawé boys don't need to get stung only once but many times more, from months to years"

[via]