24 November 2008

The ants are fine, thank you for asking.

| johnboy
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On Friday morning the ants in my backyard successfully warned us of truly horrible weather on the way.

For those worried about how the ants endured the cyclone-strength low pressure system which flung us back into winter over the weekend allow me to present the above photo.

If anything the ants’ mound is even higher than it was before the storms and they’re still busy building it higher.

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Sometimes the little one stops to do a poo. It depends on what part of the country they come from no doubt.

; )

Granny said :

For some reason they also say, “Hurrah! Hurrah!” when they march.

They also all go marching 2 by 2 when the little ones stops to do up it’s shoe and they all went marching… for to get out of the rain… for to get out of the rain…

*chuckle*

… I would like to think we’ve come a bit further than that, poptop!

I can’t offer much of either[Robbie may have both].

In a feeble attempt to cheer you up, I will tell you that male bees and ants are both called drones, they are used for breeding and then left to die.

I have transport issues, poptop. I need sympathy! Lots of sympathy. Oh, and a car.

: )

Why are you here, posting? Why are you not at Guess, taking snaps of Robbie? Hmmm?

It would not surprise me, poptop … *sigh* … and bees as well! What is wrong with the insect kingdom? Why has nobody invented suffrage for ants and bees? Why do I have to think of everything?

You do know that all those worker ants are girls . . . don’t you?

Not forgetting the ant whose parents were actually hoping for a bee: Ant-hony.

Antonia as well !

Well, there’s Atom Ant of course.

Have you named any of the ants?

For some reason they also say, “Hurrah! Hurrah!” when they march.

I wonder if they sing to themselves whilst they work? “Build it up build it up build it higher…”

Or maybe they are going into subterranean car parking scams – offering wonderously renovated basement storage as the ultimate in city car parking for a modest fee per month. The Canberra equivalent of swamp in south-east Queensland.

Ok, then I like ants and bees too.

I like ants and bees. 🙂
Bees give pretty good long-range seasonal forecasts, once you get used to them.
Bees are also good at giving an instantaneous reading of the weather (by behaviour), but the ant dams are a more visible, and less open to interpretation.

There is rain coming, as I said in the previous thread, a series of inland troughs are makign their way towards us. The big question is always moisture. Systems have been rubbish in recent times due to either a lack of moisture in the atmosphere, or lack of a catalyst to get access to that moisture. On Sunday we got an East Coast Low bombing in conjunction with the strong cold SW system, resulting in all that rain.

I like to dream that these inland troughs might be able to draw down moisture from the top end, and I think the ants may be wondering about that too.

I think they’re even better than bees!!

*ducks*

You people seriously need to learn how to read weather, and about ants.
They can tell you all kinds of things.
The survival of their entire colony depends on knowing if there’s a flood coming, and if their dam walls are big enough, to they’re rarely wrong.

Or install a live streaming AntCam.

I think you should start taking measurements.

JB can i please request an ant activity update on friday – so i know whether to take a rainjacket to foreshore or not? at the moment rain is forecast but i trust the ants more than the BOM.

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