A GI"ANT" Problem Solved...

[60dgrzbelow0]

Because of the incessant wave after wave of tropical rain storms that have super-saturated the ground, my home in Florida had recently come under siege both inside and out from invasive Ant Colonies. I'm not kidding... I saw everything from black and red wood carpenter ants crawling like Army Ants on the move up the sides of the house trying to nest in the attic areas, to common brown sugar ants and even the infamous and deadly red ants crawling along the kitchen counters and in the bathroom areas as well. I tried absolutely everything...from Black Flag sprays and Ant Baits to Glue Trays to Spectracide and nothing kept them out for very long...and then finally, I stumbled onto this stuff:

Optigard Ant

http://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/review/product/list/id/75/

The reviews sing the same praises I have for the stuff. It was almost more entertaining than HBO to watch all these species crawling up to my hand made aluminum foil trays...sipping the clear gel again and again like it was Ant Crystal Meth! Within two days...the long trails up the outside walls and the food prep areas in my kitchen soon dwindled down to nothing...and then...GONE! Not one ant in sight. I don't know what the active ingredient is in this stuff... but nothing else worked like Optigard Ant.

[robertisaar]

the MSDS states a combination of Thiamethoxam and sucrose.... so sugar + a paralytic insecticide. appears to work against a wide variety of bugs, and it looks like it can also be applied directly to plants?

[60dgrzbelow0]

the MSDS states a combination of Thiamethoxam and sucrose.... so sugar + a paralytic insecticide. appears to work against a wide variety of bugs, and it looks like it can also be applied directly to plants?

I was trying to figure out from their behavior why this clear goo was working and according to the WIKI on these Brothers in Arms (six of them) they apparently try to kill two birds with one stone. [1] They are the only insects that have actual elbows in their antennae and they use the varying strengths of the pheromones they have to communicate and/or seek with and then reinforcing the path to guide their bros to the new food source by chewing up a small amount of what they found edible, mixing it with pheromones and then painting their trails with the mixture for every other ant to follow. [2] Ants apparently feed each other either good or bad flavors like the men in a fire brigade handing off buckets of water to one another and in this way...what ever the first ant finds and eats...the rest of the colony gets a mouthful of too... and that includes the Queen.

The last thing is that what looks to us from an aerial view as random and herky -jerky movements as they move about the landscape is just the ant 'casting' like a bloodhound for whichever scent has the strongest concentration and therefore the freshest and closest proximity to the food or the danger that might be there. Also...since these critters don't live very long... the newborns trail alongside each of their colony bros to learn their jobs by imitation...like a senior partner to a rookie to show him the ropes.

Anyway... as I watched this dynamic evolve I noticed their trails to and from the clear gel where they stood close to one another like cattle at a water trough...their motions became straighter and their movements hypnotically began slowing down....and then almost all at once...nothing. I know its crazy... but the process of executing these animals...which I have nothing personal against...almost made me feel bad for them. They have been working away on this planet for around 160,000,000 years and so compared to their industry, their willingness to work together and their drive to survive... that pretty much relegates us to the real "Rookie" position.

Harrison Ford narrates this excellent PBS NOVA Documentary on ANTS and around 17 minutes in is the most relevant part to this post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn8lX3HdnAs

...and this one covers Ants as a living representation of scientists now call: A Super-Organism:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55tXhnlZoOg

LOL... I cannot get over the fact that the guys who invented and built the "Ant Cam" call it by the name of "The Franken-Cam"