This episode uses footage from The Naked Jungle (1954). The footage of Christopher Leiningen (Charlton Heston) flooding the ants was used.
MacGyver is apparently a Calgary Flames fan as he is seen wearing a hat with their logo on it throughout this episode. This particular cap would be seen several more times but would disappear forever after the first season. His love of hockey would be emphasized in the future and would actually figure prominently in several story lines.
The plot for this episode was based on the short story "Leiningen Versus the Ants" written by Carl Stephenson and published in the 1938 edition of Esquire (after originally being published in German in 1937).
There's a place in the South American rainforest where the ants go walkabout all over the place every now and then. The people there just climb up high and let the ants go through and forage off the floor. After a while the ants go back to their nest and the people climb down and get back to life.