“An incident was recently reported in the French Alps, where the authorities had investigated a fatal fall which had occurred whilst abseiling. The investigators found that the abseil anchor sling had failed. The cause was found to be damage to the sling from formic acid. The most likely source of this formic acid was thought to be from ants, which were found to be present in the area during the summer.”
Oh yeah? Really? As if I didn’t have enough to be concerned about, now I learn that a chemical secreted by ants can cause rappel slings to fail. Great.