Invasion of the Army Ants

Ants are our co-rulers of the land. An estimated ten thousand trillion strong worldwide, they weigh very roughly the same as all of humanity. From underground to treetops, they serve as the chief predators of insects and other invertebrates and the principal scavengers of small dead bodies.  A few days ago, a whole army of them showed up at our place, circled the deck that goes all the way around the house and then left. We’d been alerted by Mary that this phenomena could happen during our stay at Cerro Velero, so we were more excited than scared. It was like living in the middle of a National geographic show!

 

Forget lions, tigers, and bears. Forget even our own famously aggressive species. When it comes to the art of war, its army ants that will make you break into a cold sweat. Armored tough, with machete jaws, these masterful fighters hack and dice prey vastly larger than themselves by acting in numbers beyond easy comprehension. Imagine hordes of spear-wielding humans at a wooly mammoth's feet. That’s the scale of army ant operations when they're attacking a tarantula or scorpion.

 

The communication systems of ants are radically nonhuman. Army ants are also blind and have to use their antennae to sense smell and touch. Where we use sound and sight, they depend primarily on pheromones. As we watched the column chomping their way around the deck we noticed that most traveled in the same direction, but a few “sentries” went the opposite way and bumped in to all the others. We could only imagine what messages they were passing on.

 Army ants are quite unlike the ants commonly found at family picnics. They have what scientists call the "army ant syndrome," comprising three characteristics: the ants are nomadic, they forage for prey without advance scouting, and their wingless queens can produce up to 4 million eggs in a month. And, they don’t have a permanent nest. What they have is a unique way of forming nests, made up of army ants themselves! The ants form walls and fasten onto each other by using their mandibles. The nest is very structured, as it provides corridors within itself for transporting food and eggs throughout the many areas of the nest. Just how cool is that?!

Just another day in paradise.

Norm & Nancy 

All the facts and everything that sounds intelligent above was taken from various articles in the National Geographic magazine on-line.  

Turn on the prudent ant thy heedful eyes. Observe her labors, sluggard, and be wise.”  ~ Samual Johnson