Dragon's Aura and Army Ant Clinging

[Jeremias]

Howdy,

I was unsure about that. Army Ants can cling to a creature, but they have the following sentence in their description for "Cling":
"High wind or any amount of damage from an area effect destroys all clinging ants."

Now, is the Dragon Aura from old or older dragons an area effect in this regard?

[Avianfoo]

To put it another way, does "any amount of damage from an area effect destroys all clinging ants." apply to a white dragons cold aura?

Cold Aura wrote:

(Su)

An adult white dragon radiates an aura of cold. All creatures within 5 feet of the dragon take 1d6 points of cold damage at the beginning of the dragon's turn. An old dragon's aura extends to 10 feet. An ancient dragon's damage increases to 2d6.

Are the clinging ants within 5ft of the dragon? I'd say yes. Is it area effect damage. Yes again.

So yes. The ants die. And because the clinging ants only do damage at the end of the dragons turn, the clinging ants won't have a chance to deal any damage, because they are dead.

Unless they are somehow made to be immune to cold. But then a swarm with elemental resistances is a very scary thing indeed.