The Case of the Disappearing Ants

Ants Part I
Ants Part II
Ants Part III
Ants Part IV

No ants tonight, but the little pile of dead bodies is gone (and not left in front of my cat box.)

All's Quiet on the Antsy Front

Ants Part I
Ants Part II
Ants Part III

It's been quiet again on the ant front. I always take credit when the ants disappear, but now I realize it's because they stop being active around midnight (I've been researching again.)

Apparently ants take dead ones away to the trash heap to keep from cluttering up the hallways, or from bacteria/fungi forming, so I guess the dude I saw just happened to be a Janitor Ant. He decided the cat box was far enough away from where the other ants were working, and he'd done his duty.

God I'm gonna dream about ants tonight, I know it.

I've also learned that carpenter ant workers are females--female eunuchs. So these have been femdudes I've been killing.

I also need to take a closer look at their thoraxi to be really sure their carpenter ants. [Feels disrespectful as she checks dead body.] Yes, they are.

Bugs are so interesting. I wish we didn't have to fight. And I wish I wasn't squeamish about them. Being a bugologist is the only science job I could imagine being interested in. But then you end up having to be a forensic entomologist. (I know someone who got that far, and then realized he could not work with dead bodies. He works in publishing now.)

By the way, Medieval Days and Ways is a book, in case I didn't make that clear. My brother thought it was a wonderfully named bug spray.

Night of the Ant Graveyard

Ants Part I
Ants Part II

Had to kill several ants for awhile there, but the wave seems to have ended. I don't know if they manage to get a message back through the lines: Medieval Days and Ways is out, retreat retreat!

My brother said he saw in a show that ants pick up the bodies and bring them to a graveyard, and I said: "now I feel like I didn't let them bury their dead. :-( It's gonna turn into one of those weird Earth 2 episodes, where I think I'm being menaced by ants, but no, they're just here mourning, come back to claim the bodies I put in the trash with the kleenexi."

At one point tonight one of the ants picked up a dead body and hefted it around a bit and I thought: My God it's true! Is he going to carry it back home?

He walked around a bit, dropped it, and kept on his way. Wham. Down went the book.

Just now as I was writing this, a more hearty comrade came along and picked up one of the many bodies I'd left in a pile. He started carting it across my room. I was hoping he'd take it out so I could see where they're coming from, cause it's driving me crazy. Even when I'm watching the window and heater, they appear like magic before my eyes, I never see one enter!

But I watched him carry his buddy across the length of my room, and I'm like, great, he doesn't know the way out. Or the Ant Graveyard is somewhere in my apartment.

Well it turns out it's in front of the cat box, because that's where he left the body.

For the love. I had to kill him. And his little friends too. Well I was going to, but they'd disappeared by then. I'd let two more live, hoping to watch them collect bodies too, but I guess only one was on the graveyard shift. The other got lost in my bookcase, and another vanished into thin air.

I somehow lost Medieval Days, so now it's the 1993 Writer's Market. I'm gonna have to do more research cause I do not know what they're doing. Hoping to set up a new nest in the dust bunnies under my wooden book case?? They're very interested in that one case, and that one shelf.

Maybe the last two that lived have returned to tell the tale of the dead bodies.

Return of the Ants

Ants Part I

Ahh the ants are back and in greater numbers! And Minion's pouting because when she showed me a spider yesterday I didn't kill it.

"We don't kill spiders."
"It's black and has lots of legs and moves!"
"It moves very fast and has more legs. Makes it a spider."
"Kill it!!"
"You kill it! I'm only interested in ants."

So she's being aloof.

I'm leaving the dead bodies of the ants out, as warnings. They keep coming up on my desk, which seems courteous of them.

"Hallos!"
"You know I'm going to kill you."
"I heard you were vegan."
"Have you heard of leading-a-compassionate-but-not-perfect-life?"
"No."

And down goes Medieval Days and Ways. Poor anties.

I remember a few years ago some Buddhist monks who had a bug infestation and wouldn't kill the bugs, or hire anyone to kill them. But made their problem known so if someone wanted to come aloooong and take care of it for them... Come on--

ah! Killed another and one escaped me. Where are they coming in?? I can't tell! It's gotta be right behind my desk. Gonna look again.

Alas poor anties... I squished them with Medieval Days and Ways

It's the time for all good vegans to run for the hills and ignore my blog... the killing time. It was 20 degrees today so the big fat black ants attempted another home invasion.

I kill them. If I have to renounce the vegan title, I will. I've had one invasion that made a little headway, and I've heard horror stories of people trying to get rid of ant invasions. They are smart and they are tough and they are organized. The spiders, on the other hand, hang out in every corner unmolested; and I have a shy silverfish living in my bathroom.

My dudes live on the outside of my building, and since the first ants are scouts, I've realized that ruthlessly killing the first ones takes care of the problem each year. Well... the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. I don't mean humans, I mean the many ants who would die if they found food, brought the message back to the nest, and then made a real invasion, and I had to move from book-to-ant combat, to chemical means.

I wish the cats would kill them, then I could keep my hands clean. But she does spot them, which helps. We just killed three in a row.

Medieval Days and Ways, and a kleenex, are on the floor ready in case she spots another--she's periodically checking. I'll have to check Fernando's room tomorrow, cause in the past, when it was our living room, it was the scene of frequent invasions--it's nearer the lawn.

You can poke your head out the window and see the ant highway traveling along the building at times. My goal each year is to send the message: Beyond that window, our brave scouts did not return. Move along, move along.

update: she just took a nap, then found me a 4th - those ants won't know what hit 'em

update: that's a lot of ants. These might not be scouts - scouts might have learned that I feed Minion in this room, and they've come to collect! I'd better move her back to the bathroom. (I feed her here so she won't eat Haley's food, the little thief. Minion sucks up her portion like a hoover, then races over to Haley's. Haley had taken to grabbing her soft food in one clump and running off with it!)

My Annual Bug Mystery

As you must know by now, any bug that makes its way into my home must be identified. Drives me crazy otherwise.

Right now it's some sort of flying-beetle--in all this hot weather, it's the only bug I've seen coming into the apartment over and over. We had one moth a couple weeks back, but otherwise--just this frakking beetle. A beetle which, I might add, likes flying at me.

I tried to get Haley to kill one yesterday for me, but she thinks it beneath her hunting abilities. She'll watch them, but that's it. Then Fernando walked in and whacked it with his croc. (Crocs, by the way, aren't very effective at killing bugs.) I can kill my own bugs, I just don't like to cause I feel like a Bad Vegan. But later last night I did kill one because... well how can you fall asleep with a bug in your room that you know favors hanging out with you?

Now I think there's one hiding in my Kleenex box. I wish it would at least sit out where I can see it and identify it. It looks like this, but black or dark brown, so I wonder if it's some sort of tree pest. The trees 'round here have taken a beating the last couple years.

...

Aha! I was about to give up, but then I pursued the "bark beetle" angle and I think I've got it. A brown spruce beetle. Well, now I know it's a pest, so I won't feel bad for just killing another two. There's still plenty to go around.

Friend Mae, who holds books sacred, would I think shudder at my bug killing technique, which involves (a) a well placed Kleenex, and then (b) a well placed book. Tomes of choice tonight were a book about Prince, and White Teeth. Now maybe I should turn off the light in my room so they'll leave me alone.

My Day - boots and bugs

Ahh no. I've turned into someone who goes to bed at 2 AM! I've been sleepy for hours, but fighting it. Can't... fight... no... more...

Even though a show on eating insects is one. Well luckily I saw most of it earlier in the evening. Here's a funny scene: A guy's crop of water bugs has all died off, because someone sprayed insecticide nearby. A key to running a good bug-growing-crop: No insecticide!

Today's weather was insane, but at least I got to wear my new wellies. I showed them off to everyone.

My kobo came in today! But I can't use it til Friday... hapoos.

Check out these photos: These are gigantic swarms of flies (midges) that gather on Lake Victoria to breed, then fly to the coast and die. Some people catch them and make patties out of them--very high in protein.

eeek!

It's that time of year again. When I sit around looking at pictures of creepy-crawlies on the internets.

books & bugs

I finally made myself finish the French-Canadian-in-French book I was reading: Nikolski. It's won a ton of awards and good reviews, and was recommended by a bookseller who reads everything under the sun, but... I never got into it. I really had to push through, and finally had to speed-read the last 1/4, which is hard for me to do in French! But I learned.

Maybe I'll take a glance through the award-winning English translation and see if there's something about the language which elevates this book, and which I missed out on. When I read Jane Urquhart's Away, I didn't love the story and characters, but the language was beautiful enough to make it worth finishing.

Or maybe I would have liked it better as an art-y movie.

At least it's done, and I can go on with my Connie Willis re-reading, and the continuation of the Georgia Nicholson series.

[Speaking of her little sister, who has once again crawled into bed with her.] I really love her. I kissed her on her forehead and without opening her eyes she slapped me and said, "Cheeky monkey." I don't know what goes on in her head. (Thank God.)

In other news, I finally got back to editing my story tonight. Sitting in the kitchen, with about 100 wee fly-bugs sitting up on the ceiling criticizing my writing. The weather's been so weird this summer, that everyone's having bug invasions. One talk radio dude was woken by his budgies, whose cage had been invaded by earwigs; and another radio host had a centipede crawling across her thigh while she was working one morning.

I've seen a couple earwigs, which we don't usually get in the apartment; a couple silverfish, which are normal; some flying-beatle-ing looking thing, many spiders (though they all disappeared this past week... maybe found more to do outside), a series of flies who hang out in the cool of the tree outside my window keep finding their way into my room (gap between screen and window) and then can't get out again, there's been the usual swarm of mosquitos, and then the little green flying bugs that look like tiny mosquitos-sans-stingers (maybe male mosquitos?) Plus one wasp, which Fernando had to trap and release (they're my biggest fear--I can share the same room with anything except bees and wasps), and then the moths.

The nights have still been cool, so we leave the balcony door and kitchen window open to let in the air, and so the cats can hang on the balcony--and these giant mothra moths keep getting in. Haley and Nombly lurv to eat them. She didn't know how to hunt when she got here, but learned from watching Nombly, and now she's a pro. Tonight she lept up on a screen window, had a moth trapped under one paw, and munched on it while hanging there, so she wouldn't lose it when she jumped off. A little moth snack. Like me with a bag of chippies.

Oh wait, there's a spider above my lamp. My brother and I once knew a guy who, everytime he saw a spider in his apartment, circled it with a pencil on the wall, and named it. We were at a party when he told us this, and someone said: What if it's the same spider, and now you've given it a complex?

...
Forgot to mention, I rented Becoming Jane from the library. Not very good, which is why I'd long avoided it. I would have preferred a biopic, rather than a sort of made up tragic love story.

those kooky critters

Gol darnit! Every year I have successfully headed off the annual attempt by the ants to infiltrate my apartment. I'd read that the first ants are scouts, so I mercilessly kill the first dudes I see each year.

But this year... the scouts got passed me. And while I was away at Swissgirl's, they discovered the Sweetener Cupboard! The cupboard where we keep the sugar pot, the agave, and the molasses. I've been meaning to clean the bottom of that one shelf for awhile, because the agave bottle always burps out a little syrup when you close the lid, so the shelf is sticky.

I believe these are black carpenter ants. The good news: They do a lot of their work at night, which is when we're awake... so I can keeell them (or make Fernando keell them. I can keell with shoes and books, but don't care for the hand-t0-hand combat approach.)

Bad news: They're omniverous.

- grains: nooooo!
- fruits: I'd better stick the raisins and craisins in the fridge
- living or dead insects, other small invertebrates: Oh yes, got other insects around this place. (Don't click on the next links unless you like bug pics.) Silverfish and carpet bugs. (Ew and they eat their own dead kind too!)
- common sweets such as syrup, honey, jelly, sugar : Doh! All in my fridge now.
- and most kinds of meat, grease, and fat: Soft cat food remnants! Curses! And gotta make sure the olive and canola oils are safe.

* Apparently they eat the food on the spot, then regurgitate it into little baby ant mouths.

* Man... soon it will be fruit fly season too! Well, at least I've never heard tell of cockroach problems here.

* Writing about ants gives me "formification" (the sensation of bugs crawling on you.)

* They bite!

Crazy ants. Go away!

Ahhh! The story of me in bugs.

My annual ant invasion has begun! Armed with a book and a kleenex, I annually become unvegan.

I've said it before... I do not let infesting-insects get a toehold in my home. Spiders are welcome, flies I try to usher outside, the randomly passing silverfish or dust bug can go about its business. But fruit flies and ants meet with ruthlessness. I can't afford to try Nice Tactics, because once they set in, they're near impossible to get out. Ants, fruit flies and mosquitoes have adapted just fine to humans. The only pity I grant them is a swift death, except for fruit flies. ...They go into the garbage, still frolicking in their apple sauce trap.

More bug cooooolness

OH MY GOD bugs and animals etc. are sooooo interesting.

I was just reading about the Asian giant hornet (it's as big as a human thumb) which love to invade honeybee houses and steal the larvae (to feed their own larvae... sick!) Check this out: (from wiki)

a single hornet can kill as many as 40 honey bees per minute thanks to their large mandibles which can quickly strike and decapitate a bee. It takes only a few of these hornets a few hours to exterminate the population of a 30,000-member hive, leaving a trail of severed insect heads and limbs

BUT. While European honeybees get killed off because they haven't developed a defense against these hornets, the Japanese honeybees have a chance to hold their own if they detect the hornet's "pheremonal hunting signals." Check THIS out:

When the honey bees detect these pheromones, a hundred or so will gather near the entrance of the nest and set up a trap, keeping it open apparently to draw the hornet further into the hive or allow it to enter on its own. As the hornet enters the nest, a large mob of about five hundred honey bees surrounds it, completely covering it and preventing it from moving, and begin quickly vibrating their flight muscles. This has the effect of raising the temperature of the honey bee mass to 47 °C (117 °F). The honey bees can just about tolerate this temperature, but the hornet cannot survive more than 46 °C (115 °F), so it dies. Often several bees perish along with the intruder, but the death of the hornet scout prevents it from summoning reinforcements which would wipe out the colony.

WTF! A giant honeybee ball of heat! How interesting is that! If bees don't bother you, check out the photo.

(And everyone mocks the Ewoks for being able to kill Imperial soldiers. Hmph!)

buggies!

Do you ever have a web site, or type of web site, that you just can't escape... and you come back to, like, once a year?

For me it's bug identification sites. Whenever I find a new bug in my home, I wonder what it is and what it's eating and why it's hanging around, and I end up googling until I find a likely candidate. I always end up on What's That Bug (and similar sites) and can't get away! It's all creepy and fascinating. I admire all these bug lovers who write in.

Oh oh... I see they have a "Worst Bug Story" page. I feel it sucking me in! Ahhhhh...... I once spent a whole afternoon reading about people who get "delusional parasitosis" where they think they have invisible bugs all over them that no doctor can help them with, and it drives them nuts.

I'll spare you and not post any pics.