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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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Thursday, January 16. 2020

Fun with ants

An ant hobbyist. Watching this, I sort-of get it. This guy cracks me up.



Posted by The News Junkie in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 14:59 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)

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Imported Fire Ants, man don't get me started. They love electrical fields, and will pack off in electrical wall outlets, or even worse, the contact points that control your water wells. We would have to change out our circuit breakers in the electrical boxes one by one because of them getting inside and rendering them inoperable. They stack up their dead. If you disturb these little piles of dead ants, you'll come back later and find them re-stacked. 20 years ago they were much worse than they are now, out in the countryside - Not only because of Amdro, I think the native varieties have interbred with the aggressive South American (imported) ones so they aren't as rampant now. Weird weird weird little creatures. The only thing good about them, they get rid of ticks. Now the ticks are starting to re-surge.
#1 Aggie on 2020-01-16 15:19 (Reply)
What's with all of the ant stories?

They're creeping me out.
#2 DrTorch on 2020-01-16 15:32 (Reply)
I have seen fire ant rafts after a heavy rain floating on to p of the water. Nothing but ants floating in a ball. The queen and as bunch of eggs in the middle.

I found that it's a great opportunity to kill an entire colony by pouring a couple of ounces of gas into the raft, then throwing a match in.

They burn nicely.
#3 Bill Adams on 2020-01-16 15:53 (Reply)
Those aren't fire ants in the video but I don't suppose it matters much.
Back when we lived on the river the entire yard would flood several times a year. It was a great time to kill off the fire ants. I filled a gallon sprayer with dish washing soap and water then went hunting. The ants from a mound made a little floating mountain in the water. A little squirt with soap would break their surface tension and down they would go to drown. The biggest colony I ever sprayed was 5' across and probably a foot high in the middle.
#4 FRP on 2020-01-16 19:15 (Reply)
One of my favorite things to do as a child was to use a magnifying glass to set ant holes on fire. Who needs matches, anyway.
#5 Jewel (Link) on 2020-01-16 21:03 (Reply)
Fire ants would make a wonderful finale for Pelosi and the renegade governor of Virginia.

Diesel fuel and a Bernz-o-matic torch are handy for managing fire ants.

As a previous comment notes, the nasty things have a strange proclivity for electrical stuff. That is not one of those places for diesel fuel or torches!
#6 Not Kennedy on 2020-01-16 21:05 (Reply)
To paraphrase Josey Wales, guppies gotta eat same as birds.
#7 LAG on 2020-01-17 11:03 (Reply)

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