22 December 2008

The ants are coming - or is that going..?

| astrojax
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Yesterday early evening, out picking apricots from our tree by the driveway, i noticed a flurry of movement by a couple of ants nests beside our front path and, on closer examination, saw a mutlitude of winged bullants scurrying about and then taking flight – it was all over in minutes, some several hundred of these little beasties must have gone off into the sunset (yes, they did indeed head towards the west, agains the prevailing wind), so if you live west of dickson: look out!

anyone else notice the ants on the move yesterday, or have any explanation for a biology-deficient rioter as to this behaviour? will my nests now be a little less frenetic? (sorry i don’t have pics – the things just zoomed – and i was too rapt!)

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thanks mulder. btw, while you were ant watching, aliens ate your lunch…

I spent half my evening reasuring folk they didn’t need to spend their Christmas money on emergency pest control! Ants in most caes are benefitial insects, only when they get into our homes or wreck our paving are they pests.

I’ve been investigating the abnormal movement of ants in the Canberra region and your incident is one in a string of animal movement abnormalities that I’ve been tracking from Western Australia. I’ll continue investigating and I’ll see if anything turns up.

WIN had a crawl along the bottom of the screen about a severe storm warning for Woden and Weston Creek for a second, then the program was interrupted by an ad break.

ant said :

Depending on what happens for the rest of the day, there might be some more storm-action this arvo when the trough line moves through. Depends on air moisture levels, and warming.

I am certain someone said that on weatherzone forum….

tylersmayhem12:57 pm 23 Dec 08

I know, I know Peter – glad it’s not just me *still shaking head in disbelief*

tylersmayhem said :

I was reading one of my wifes mags the other day (out of sheer boredom), and I saw a picture of what must have been the biggest insect I had ever seen. I couldn’t tell if is was a massive wasp, or perhaps a Praying Mantis. I showed my wife and she gave me a really weird look, and I said “what”?!

She said, “that’s Victoria Beckham”

easy mistake to make…

It’s not how hot the insect is, Skid, it’s how many friends the insect has.

If you put a wig on it, would it look better than Delta Goodrem?

tylersmayhem10:49 am 23 Dec 08

I was reading one of my wifes mags the other day (out of sheer boredom), and I saw a picture of what must have been the biggest insect I had ever seen. I couldn’t tell if is was a massive wasp, or perhaps a Praying Mantis. I showed my wife and she gave me a really weird look, and I said “what”?!

She said, “that’s Victoria Beckham”

I want a picture – with scale!

BerraBoy68 said :

I am (amazingly forthis time of year,I know) being serious. I flicked this sucker off the car but wish I’d kept it. My son is getting an Ant Farm for Xmas and this one ant would have filled the sucker.

kambah seems to have heaps of the buggers. the lurking sparrows are cleaning them up, but only whilst they aren’t stuffed and bloated.

I am (amazingly forthis time of year,I know) being serious. I flicked this sucker off the car but wish I’d kept it. My son is getting an Ant Farm for Xmas and this one ant would have filled the sucker.

The gullible ingenue who is an idiot in me says, “Wow! That’s amazing! You may have even discovered a new mutant species,” and the bitter and crusty skeptic wannabe says, “Do you have photographic evidence for this, BerraBoy68, ’cause I sure might look silly for believing you!”

Speaking of ants, I think I saw their leader the other night.

Getting back in the car after looking at Xmas lights on Sunday night, my son says, “what’s that on the car”. I take a look thinking it’s just a leaf and was staggered to see it was an ant about 3-4cm’s long, black and thick as my litle finger. It was much bigger than a bullant and it wasn’t a fire-ant. Biggest sucker I’ve ever seen.

Depending on what happens for the rest of the day, there might be some more storm-action this arvo when the trough line moves through. Depends on air moisture levels, and warming.

Madman said :

Well it’s raining today so that would kind of explain it!

fairly certain that any winged or otherwise large ants did not enjoy the downpour. shame that the lightning was obscured by the heavy rain, will have to set the tripod up for some shots next storm….

Now what am I going to wear to my daughter’s 26th birthday instead of that cute little blue dress??

Damn you, ants!! Damn you all!

Well it’s raining today so that would kind of explain it!

bigfeet said :

Obviously the ants are taking more of an interest in what is going on around than you have:

There’s no point in acting all surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now.

ROFLAO!

So long and thanks for all the crumbs ….

*chuckle*

Obviously the ants are taking more of an interest in what is going on around than you have:

There’s no point in acting all surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now.

Interesting. I saw this once as a kid and thought I was seeing things.

“Flying Ant Day or Flant Day is an informal term for a day on which queen ants emerge from the nest to begin their nuptial flight. In most species, the male ants also fly alongside them, although they are smaller and less noticeable. The queens fly for a while – sometimes being dispersed very long distances, and sometimes going only a few meters – then mate, and drop to the ground where they lose their wings, and attempt to start a colony.

The mass of flying insects often attracts the attention of predators such as birds, and it is common to see flocks of feeding birds gorging on the readily available food.

This phenomenon occurs in many colonies simultaneously when the local weather conditions are appropriate, to reduce the effectiveness of predation and to ensure that the queens and males from different colonies stand a chance of meeting and interbreeding. It therefore has the appearance of being a ‘timed’ event or that the ants somehow communicate. However neither of these is likely to be the case – it is simply a common response to temperature, humidity and windspeed.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_ant_day

Fascinating.

I saw there huge ants doing exactly that – it was like a nature program – they all came out of their nest and then flew west – at around 1700hrs….. Was cool to watch.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy9:44 pm 22 Dec 08

Nothing a can of WD40 and a lighter won’t fix…

We have a fair few of them too..

…which the cat can eat. I’m not fussed.

Felix the Cat7:38 pm 22 Dec 08

I noticed the ants seemed busy yesterday too – mainly the regular small black ones but a few bullants too. No idea why.

Vic Bitterman7:29 pm 22 Dec 08

Same here! Last night I noticed heaps of activity in the railway sleeper steps in our backyard, their entrance to the nest is the hole that a spike used to go through. Although this time I didn’t see any winged ants, I did last year and it was an amazing spectacle that only lasted 20 minutes or so, watching them take flight.

Tonight, they are again congregating around their entrance in huge numbers, but I haven’t seen any winged ones.

Our ants aren’t bullants though, they may be large in size but they have really tiny nippers and I’m not worried by them at all.

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