What? Ants?!
Tagged as: May 11I really like watching The Discovery Channel. That makes me think of another show that I really have started to enjoy: Man vs Wild but that is a whole different entry.
Tonight I watched parts of Killer Ants and Ant Wars on The Discovery Channel. Of the Formicidae family, ants are infamous around the world. Now I am definitely no fan of these pesky insects, but I am most comfortable watching them from the safety of my home.
Siafu Ants
On the shows that I watched, I learned about an ant that I had not heard much of: the Siafu Ant. Apparently this is a very well-known ant from Africa. Why is it well-known? Well here are some highlights:
- They do not stay in the same place for very long, they have to up and move more than once a month. Imagine having to do that!
- They form highways before they actually move. The lead parties will stake out a new location and lay a chemical trail for others to follow. They will then clear the path of obstacles and actually create a trench for the new highway so that it will be easier for the large mass to navigate.
- There are at least 3 different classes of Siafu besides the queen and the male. They are differently sized and have different strengths. They range from the large soldier ants with crushing jaws to the small utilitarian ant that can perform any number of duties including cleaning larvae, hunting, and forming the walls of the colonies!
- They have to hunt in order to feed the millions of larvae that are produced by the queen monthly. Millions!
- To hunt, they will basically spread out along the forest floor and sweep around the area near the colony. They sense the carbon dioxide that living beings emit in order to find them! As soon as one ant encounters prey, it will release a chemical signal so that others will immediately come to help. They win by sheer power in numbers.
- Oh yes, and many of them do not have eyes. They do all of these things just using chemical signals.
- Not on the show, but reading about them online I found that they can intentionally hunt and prey on much larger (well larger than insects) animals! It’s not necessarily common, but it also definitely seems like it happens. Rabbits, vipers, and even a drunk with a broken leg were stories that I read about.
Bulldog Ants
The bulldog ants are not as prominent in the world perhaps, but they are still pretty well known in their native Australia. They are large and independent ants that are in many ways opposite of the Siafu. One of the most interesting things about them is that they have venom that can cause anaphylactic shock! Apparently their venom is one of the most potent of any insect! (Of course this means that it doesn’t include snakes, spiders, etc) However, their nests are small and they will hunt almost strictly individually. However, because they are unafraid of human interaction, there can be literally once a week hospital emergencies on account of a bite.
Why??
Why do I care about all of this? Well besides the fact that it is simply amazing to see these creations doing what they do, I feel like there is so much to learn from them!
- They are diligent in their work. You don’t see slackers messing around when they should be working.
- They are willing to give their all for something bigger than themselves.
- Trust is something that they can inherently do with ease.
- Aspiration to be the greatest (although an admirable trait in some humans) is nonexistent with these creatures. We can learn to be a bit more satisfied with who we are, what we have, and so on instead of always being dissatisfied with every aspect of our lives.
- They get their friends to help them out. Okay so that is just the Siafu…
- But the bulldog ants are also good as they are so aptly named because they will refuse to let go once they bite. Once you get something good, you don’t let that go.
- Don’t be afraid to up and change things around if it’s not working. When the ants run out of food, they will move. Just because you do something that you’ve always done does not mean that you are constrained to continue doing it.
There are many more I am sure. I enjoy finding life lessons where there are seemingly none. I also enjoy watching The Discovery Channel.
i think being eaten alive by a swarm of vicious ants would rank pretty high on the list of lousiest ways to die.
right after i read this, i came across this:
Biting gnats bug people, kill chickens in Midwest
bugs bugs everywhere.
@william
Sorry that your comment didn’t show up. It was marked as spam because of the link that you added. I modified the settings so that it is more lenient.
In regards to your comment I totally agree that death by ants would be a really bad way to go. Worse yet is the fact that these Siafu ants don’t actually just eat you. (Well in the case of humans anyways) they will crawl all over you and try to find a way to get at your more sensitive parts. That means that death from these often is a result of ants suffocating you by getting into your lungs! They eat you from the inside out! I watched them attack a crab (I don’t remember how a crab was in Africa), and they tried and tried and finally got into its joints and ate it from the inside out. Oh man that is a really bad way to go.
wow, nerd.
ants are gross. period. but i’m glad that you appreciate them! haha
I have to say that anybody who can make insects into a valuable “life lesson” deserves to be on my RSS feed! I’ll do that right now. I’m impressed. But, I wish you would quit making me want to smash my monitor(lol)!
really… ditto on what tiff said.
ok and your comment back to kep? sick. i almost threw up.
but this entry kinda made me laugh because last year when i was in kenya we meet this music producer and his name was “ciafu”… haha. it stood of Chris Is All FUn. haha… but also he named himself after the ants. so i called him ant man. haha
i saw those ants on the discovery channel too. they ate a freaking chicken!
@tiff
Haha I’ll take that as a compliment.
@melissa
Okay I think that ants are gross. But I also think that they’re so interesting! But only as long as I’m watching them on the television and not crawling around my house.
@This Eclectic Life
Well I’m glad that my stuff would be interesting enough for anyone to want to subscribe to! And in regards to wanting to smash those ants, I’d have to agree that they’re pretty gross looking pictures. I also claim no responsibility for broken monitors.
@kiki
You seem like you’re getting close to throwing up often. Haha it is funny that you met someone in Kenya who called himself after these ants. Hopefully it was just because he really was fun and not because he happened to kill everything around him like the ants do.
@ricky
I was thinking about how crazy it is that these ants could kill animals that were so much larger than them. I guess that I could see how it could happen. Imagine having to fight against a hundred really small animals. That would be impossibly difficult unless you were a superhero. Unfortunately that only happens in the movies.
i know serious. that would be like me walking around saying “hi… my name is killer ant” haha
I saw this same ant documentary! I was so intrigued.. yet I hate ants.. at least the ants that are dangerous. Anytime I see the ants up close I always think of the “Honey I shrunk the Kids” movie with the pet ant. Cute.