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10:43 p.m. - 2005-05-08
Ant attack! (New Pic 5/14/07)
Warning: The following entry contains mention of violence and pre-meditated murder.

This weekend was marked with insectoid death! It all started Friday. I discovered a swarm of wing-ed ants milling around the window in my stairwell. They were pretty big, and seemed to be emerging from a hole next to the windowsill. Since there are no anteaters in North America (see previous entry!), I, Wendell, needed to take care of the problem. I'd say about 100 ants, or more, succumbed to the Raid death spray.

Carpenter_Ants

Unfortunately the corpses are still lying there. I guess I should sweep them up.

Killing insects can be a valiant act of romance, as R saved me not once, BUT TWICE from centipedes this weekend! The first incident was Friday night: a smallish 'pede crawling on his basement ceiling. The second occurred today. I was in R's room, and happened to glance into his empty clothes basket. And of course lingering there was a reddish, two inch long centipede! All I had to do was yelp and cry, "R!" and he came in, paper towel in hand, resolve on his face. He said, "ooh, that IS a bad one," and took care of it. What a brave boyfriend!

Everyone is sharing their centipede stories! KB informed me her super cat, known in this diary as "Pepe", chased down a centipede in their basement! And last Sunday my sis L called me at 10 pm to share that she spotted the first centipede of the season, streaking across her windowsill!

R suggested I write a poem about my insect experience. I couldn't think of a new one, but submit this older example.

Centipede, me no likey,
Bug so big, he wear Nike;
Spray with bugspray, yes I do:
Hunt him down and squish with shoe!

I hope you like it, dear readers, and encourage you to submit your own!

Sorry for the centipede tangent. On to the true subject of the day: Ants!

One thing to know about ants: there are a lot of them. A lot of species, and millions of ants all over the world. In fact, Hymnoptera (bees, wasps, ants and others) is one of the most successful and massive groups of creatures on earth.

The study of ants even has its own name! Myrmecology. (Wait, isn't that the name of *hot* Brad Pitt's posse in "Troy"? Pause for brief romantic fantasy...ok, continue reading!)

Formicidae is the family name of ants. They've been around for over 100 million years! In fact, army ants haven't evolved since back then. (Those are the one you see traveling by the millions in the rainforest, devouring various creatures and leaving behind a trail of refuse and bones picked clean.)

Like bees, ants have organized communities, and several castes within the colony. The most commonly seen ant type is the worker, a female ant whose sexual organs are undeveloped and who are therefore sterile. In some species you'll see ants with very large heads and jaws; these are called soldiers. Male ants often have wings, as do young queens, or "princesses". And then there's the queen, basically a giant egg-laying machine! The other ants take care of her, feed her, protect and feed the eggs and immature young, and try to make out with her!

So going back to the incident in my apartment. I think what I witnessed was a swarm of carpenter ants; princesses and males. Throughout the year, ants will leave the nest to start new ones. That's what happens when you see a bunch winged ants swarming around. The females will get "ravished" (as they say in romance novels) and fly off to start new nests, while the males die.

Side note: When Wendell was little she enjoyed watching anthills, and felt the need to spray the flying ants with her Dad's WD-40. I don't know if that is an interesting thing to mention.

Ants eat many things. You've probably seen leaf harvester ants (on TV); they cut little pieces of leaves, carry them to their burrows in rainforest trees, where they chew them and use the mixture to grow the fungus on which the ants feed! There are some ants who "farm" aphids, protecting the little leaf suckers and then "milking" them for the sweet juices they produce. The carpenter ants in my apartment building don't eat wood; they just dig tunnels in it and hang out there (obviously still causing damage!) Carpenter ants eat other insects, and scavenge for food particles.

Apparently all ant food needs to be somewhat moist or they can't eat it?

Ants are good communicators. They utilize sound, chemical leavins', smell and sight to share their feelings. Examples of these include tapping others with their antennae, or hitting their nest with them, and leaving a chemical trail for other ants to follow. Some ants have ridged spots on their bodies, on which they can rub a leg to make noise. Ants can also orient themselves by seeing objects such as trees and rocks, the sun, and feeling the incline of the area surrounding their home.

Ants can live a long time. Most workers survive from a few months to a few years, while queens in the wild can live for ten years. One female in captivity produced eggs for 22 years!

The various species of ants develop at different rates. The life cycle starts with eggs, which hatch first into embryos. These grow into a larval stage and finally a pupal stage, and throughout "childhood" the infants are turned, protected and fed by workers. These four stages last from 54 days to 14 weeks.

The unique thing that separates social insects from other creatures is the fact that the main goal of survival for ants is not based on the individual search for a mate and having surviving babies. Instead many ants are created to be expendable, infertile workers to protect the single fertile queen.

This isn't very romantic, but it works!

Happy new week to all of you critter lovers!

Wendell

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