I’ve always been fascinated with ants.
Uncles, not so much.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Okay. Ants. A couple of weekends back, I watched a group of ants work very hard to move a dead fly up our back step. They struggled and called in more ants to aid in the lifting and carrying and to start building an ant elevator. More ants heard the message — albeit ants do not have ears. The most crucial way that ants communicate with each other is through those unique chemicals called pheromones. They “smell” the pheromones with their antennae. By doing this, ants can communicate about everything from colony activity to where food is located. And, of course, lifting dead flies up porch steps.
Anyway, someone noticed me watching and started watching too. Then a moment later, two other people gathered on the steps, placing their feet dangerously close to the ant elevator. I couldn’t hear them, but I’m sure those ants said, “Aaarrrrgggghhhhh!” I tried to continue watching while still pretending to be paying attention to the human conversation. At first, the ants dispersed and then came back to retrieve the dead fly. They carried it away, out of my view. Unless, of course, I started crawling on the ground to follow them, which would have been bad party manners with my guests.
It’s amazing to witness their strength. Like lifting that fly. I mean, a couple of the ants were doing this all by themselves.
“Bert, I got the front. You take the back.”
“Sure, give me the butt end. You know that’s the heavy part.”
Sorry again. Back to the lifting.
Ants are ridiculously strong. They have the ability to carry between 10 and 50 times their own body weight. And the amount an ant can carry depends on the species. There is a species called the Asian weaver ant that can lift 100 times its own mass.
I’ll sit and watch ants whenever I get the chance. Ants are smart. I recently read an article about the intelligence of bugs. The three groups that are at the top when it comes to smarts — according to the article — are bees, ants, and cockroaches.
The article explained that this is partially biased because these three are some of the best-studied insects of all. Not only that, it’s further biased because these insects behave, in some ways, more like humans than any other. We measure the intelligence of animals and insects against our own intelligence, you see.
Anyway, ants. I love when a whole big group of them set out to do something. It is very organized, and often, you will see little “scuffles” among them when some dope is going the wrong way.
It is one of the things I like about summer. Lots and lots of ants.
The phrase “a lot” is an understatement when describing the number of ants currently in existence. To put this in perspective, it is estimated that there are around one million ants for every one human in the world. They could conquer us if they got organized.
And they’ve been here a long time. A study from Harvard and Florida State Universities discovered that ants first rose during the Cretaceous period around 130 million years ago. They have survived the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T extinction) that killed the dinosaurs as well as the ice age.
So. I like to watch them live, and work. That’s what they do mostly. Work. Ants do not play. I’ve never seen them golf or any other such thing. But seriously, they do not play. There are many different jobs within their colony, and that’s what they do, do, do, all day long.
Most of all, I like when they go foraging. Ants will leave a pheromone trail so that they know where they’ve been. And that way, they can always get back home.
This world is amazing, I think.
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“I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.”
― Jerome K. Jerome
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“I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early.”
― Charles Lamb
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“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”
― Leo Tolstoy
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They’ve got high in the sky, apple pie, hopes.
