Scott and I found an interesting ant trail. It was well traveled and from it's appearance it looks like it has been in use for a long time. So we followed it for a short distance until it led into the brush. Instead of getting back on our trail we just stood and we watched.
There were a lot ants on this trail, traveling in both directions. Meeting and contacting one another, carrying their loads and giving us the impression that they had a sense of urgency and duty. Where were they going? What was under the brush? Water, food? Were they moving their home to a safer location? What I found fascinating was not once did they stray from their trail. Since it was a well worn trail it makes you wonder if pheromones were used in marking this particular trail.
Interesting Ant Facts I Found On The Web
There are more than 12,000 species of ants all over the world.
An ant can lift 20 times its own body weight. If a second grader was as strong as an ant, she would be able to pick up a car! They work in teams to move extremely heavy things.
Some queen ants can live for many years and have millions of babies!
Ants don’t have ears. Ants "hear" by feeling vibrations in the ground through their feet.
When ants fight, it is usually to the death!
When foraging, ants leave a pheromone trail so that they know where they’ve been.
Queen ants have wings, which they shed when they start a new nest.
Ants don’t have lungs. Oxygen enters through tiny holes all over the body and carbon dioxide leaves through the same holes.
When the queen of the colony dies, the colony can only survive a few months. Queens are rarely replaced and the workers are not able to reproduce.
Ant brains are largest amongst insects. Mushroom shaped brain appendages have function similar to the gray-matter of human brains.
It has been estimated that an ant's brain may have the same processing power as a Macintosh II computer.
3 comments:
I just sent you an mp3 file with a song about ants .... in Arizona!
Ants are fascinating. Love to watch them. Hate having my skin pierced by them! A Macintosh II was my first computer; I'm glad my current computers are smarter than the ant. Jus' sayin'.
I want a daughter like yours and a mother like you. I was obviously born on the wrong side of the family....
I"M just sayin'.....
I'm always wondering what would ants do? Do they think and reason their life out? Do they pay taxes to their Queen? Do they resent her? Do they bitch about the weather? DO THEY FIGHT? DO THEY WORRY ABOUT THE ECONOMY...Do they have a heaven and a hell? Do they have sex? Do they mate for life or have ant baseball teams? Do they fall in love, go off to war or worry about how their hair looks and go on diets?
This explains a lot. Ants following their own scent. Better then Hansel and Gretlle and the bread crumb trails. Let me know if you run into those two someday.
Cool...these teeny tiny critters. Doesn't sound like they have very much going on. A whole bunch of same ol' same ol" and no variety. Boring...and these Queen bees do they just materialize when the old one dies? Where the heck do they come from? Do they have sex? How do they make the new babies?
Sounds like all but the Queen are slaves. Maybe we should save them.
A rescue may be in order. OMGosh now I'll be dreaming about dead ants.
hehetehehe
J-
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