Ants aren't really something I get excited about... unless they are biting me or all over my kitchen counter (both of which have happened more times than I can count living here in the jungle!) But seriously, they have never captured my attention before until living where we are now... because our living room, kitchen & dining area are all basically "outside". So they pretty much come and go as they please: under the doors, through the screen windows and squeezing through the numerous cracks in our walls. And I never realized how many different KINDS of ants there are. Within the first week we were here, there was an ant crawling across our living room floor that was almost the size of Hubby's pinky finger!!! Conversely, there are your everyday "tickle" ants, as we call them (because they are so tiny, many times you don't notice them until you feel them tickling you as they crawl over your skin). Then there are regular fire ants that hurt like the dickins! And there are black ants in enough sizes that your toddler would be challenged in doing a Size Sort activity... According to National Geographic, ants are so prevalent in tropical forests that they may make up half of all the insects living in some areas!!! I can believe it.
The kids & I were outside having a snack one afternoon. Cutlet dropped a piece of cracker unknowingly, and within a matter of a minute or so, a team of ants had swarmed the cracker, hastily carrying it off like a miniature team of bandits with their stolen treasure. The kids & I decided to watch where they were taking it. (I was curious as to the location of their hide-out amidst all the grass in our yard).
It was a captivating sight... I was amazed at how they managed to finagle their way across tiny sticks, limbs and leaves, at times the ants dangling themselves as they desperately hung on to their loot. And of course they all worked diligently together to get it back to their nest.
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(And did you know that an ant can lift or carry something more than 3 times their own weight?) ...
Which brings me to the well-known leaf-cutter ants. This may look like just a scattered batch of leaves, but beneath each leaf is a mighty leaf-cutter, transporting this small plant morsel to an underground city.
According to Wikipedia, "next to humans, leafcutter ants form the largest and most complex animal societies on Earth," and " the central mound of their underground nests can grow to more than 30 metres (98 ft) across." Wow!
Even more interesting to me is the reason for all these leaves. These ants are actually cultivating their own little fungus farm. They feed this fungus with all the leaves they bring in, cultivate it, and feed the fungus to their larvae, and the adult ants feed off the leaf sap. The fungus needs the ants to stay alive, and the ants need the fungus... which, in scientific mumbo-jumbo, is called ant-fungus mutualism.
Well, as I mentioned previously, I've had more than my fair share of ant invasions all over my kitchen counter... enough to make me just about go nuts and start spanking them with a kitchen towel. So last year when my in-laws came for Christmas, my FIL hooked me up with my new secret weapon for killing those resilient insects. He found the solution here, and after I set it out, I was absolutely amazed at its result. I've put it out on 2 or 3 occasions since then... sometimes it seems to take a bit longer to have an effect, but I can vouch for it's effectiveness in the end. Of course some ant types may not be affected by this, so it's just a matter of trial and error. Either way, it's worth a shot!
