Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Sunday, June 12. 2016

An ant on an adventure


I put a large pot of annuals out on the porch yesterday morning. In a half-hour, one little black ant was exploring the rim.


What? How? Why?  It is about time that I read E.O.Wlson's book.  Ants are everywhere. What the heck do they do all day? What moves them to explore a new flower pot?

Posted by Bird Dog in Natural History and Conservation at 05:13 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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My favorite professor, ever. I almost switched into his department (but stupidly stayed in another major). When he used to lecture about observing the ants, especially in the tropics, and their behavior, you alternately felt as if you were sweating in a jungle swatting mosquitoes with him, or as if you were watching an ant (as he would show how one would forage or menace an enemy).

He is most famous for his work on sociobiology http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674002357 which should be required reading for all undergraduates. But won't be because, even an eternity ago (when I was young), it pissed off the PC.
#1 Retriever on 2016-06-12 06:56 (Reply)
Save some time and read Trailhead, a short story by Wilson from the New Yorker. Great 10-15 minute read. Available on line.
As always thanks for all the great work on the site.
#2 RickinJax on 2016-06-12 10:03 (Reply)
We could fix this. Provide welfare, housing and food stamps and the ants will trade the food stamps for drugs and alcohol and sleep all day.
#3 GoneWithTheWind on 2016-06-12 10:04 (Reply)
http://modernfarmer.com/2014/04/meet-earths-oldest-farmers-ants/
I wonder if the ant was after aphids feeding on sap and nectar, the way they farm them on peonies?
#4 Retriever on 2016-06-12 11:03 (Reply)
To heck with figuring out where ants come from, I want to know where tomato worms come from. No matter how well I shake off the soil when I transplant the seedlings to get rid of eggs and put down a little pesticide around them to kill the grubs, some day when the tomatoes start getting half-grown I'm going to walk out there and find a half-eaten tomato and a tomato worm the size of a sausage link going all free-buffet on my plants. (I don't believe if you chop him up and leave the parts scattered around it scares off the other ones but I do it anyway just because I'm a psycho killer who gets at least a little pleasure taking revenge on those horror-movie freak worms.)
#5 Jerryskids on 2016-06-12 11:12 (Reply)
RickinJax is right Worth your time, and thanks as always
Here's Trailhead: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/01/25/trailhead
#6 Catherine on 2016-06-13 14:29 (Reply)

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