9.21.2008

i hate ANTS!!


Our kitchen has recently become the hang out for the local colony of ants! I decided to jump online to figure out how to get rid of them (right now we have ant baits and Comet working for us...tomorrow we are going to try peppermint oil) and found myself learning more any more about the stupid little creatures...did you know that "Ant societies have division of labour, communication between individuals, and an ability to solve complex problems. These parallels with human societies have long been an inspiration and subject of study."

AND

"Since most ants live on the ground, they use the soil surface to leave pheromone trails that can be followed by other ants. In species that forage in groups, a forager that finds food marks a trail on the way back to the colony; this trail is followed by other ants, these ants then reinforce the trail when they head back with food to the colony. When the food source is exhausted, no new trails are marked by returning ants and the scent slowly dissipates. This behaviour helps ants deal with changes in their environment. For instance, when an established path to a food source is blocked by an obstacle, the foragers leave the path to explore new routes. If an ant is successful, it leaves a new trail marking the shortest route on its return. Successful trails are followed by more ants, reinforcing better routes and gradually finding the best path. Ants use pheromones for more than just making trails. A crushed ant emits an alarm pheromone that sends nearby ants into an attack frenzy and attracts more ants from further away. Several ant species even use "propaganda pheromones" to confuse enemy ants and make them fight among themselves."

Thank you Wikipedia for making me hate ants even more...and for making me more paranoid about the inability to really get rid of them! YUCK!!

2 comments:

Jaci said...

ants are disgusting...they have moved in to my bathroom... maybe our ants are friends!
PS: I am now stalking your blog

Karen, aka Yaya said...

I agree--ants are awful!!! Just don't like them, not one bit.