I drive 30 miles to Carolina Biological and buy the $8.00 package of Harvester ants... they are definitely red ants. They are packaged generously into a little plastic container like the kind used for chicken salad or pimiento cheese spread . The woman gives me an information booklet. I estimate there are well over 50 ants in the container. Although I need only 25 ants, I plan to give the remainder to Linda, another teacher who bought an ant farm during our workshop last week. I read in the booklet that I can keep them in the fridge for up to 2 weeks before putting them in the ant farm... so, I put them in the fridge for an hour while I do some more on-line research.
I check on them, and they all look dead! They are curled up into little red ant balls. I tip the container, and their little bodies slide around, making soft clicking sounds as they drop from one side to the other.
I have killed them!
Then I think, maybe that's what they look like when they are cold, because I know if someone stuck me in a huge freezer, I'd probably curl up into a ball trying to stay warm... quickly I turn over the ant farm and dump out the two original Carpenter ants, giving them their freedom since they weren't doing what they were supposed to do! Then I gently shake the dead red ants into the ant farm. It is easy to transfer them like this. They fall softly, like little crumbs. No bites, no stings, no arguments, no escaping.
I blow gently on them and say "Wake up! Wake up, little ants." (I really say that. I talk to myself frequently, especially when trying to solve a problem, and talking to dead ants doesn't seem any different.) I see an antennae move ever so slightly. I can't believe how much I want them to be alive... I feel like Peter Pan asking the children to clap their hands if they believe, to keep Tinker Bell alive.
I believe! I believe... let them be alive! I see a leg move, then another. I keep blowing softly, as much to circulate fresh air as to warm them up. I am worried that the previous occupants might have left too much of their own formic acid about and cause these new inhabitants much concern. As the new occupants come around, thaw out, or wake up, I watch with curiosity to see their first reactions to their new environment.
Imagine, one minute you are imprisoned in a small, dark plastic place with pieces of cardboard, and it's very crowded. Then, suddenly, you feel cold, and fall asleep. You wake up, and you are in this magical blue place with lots of light, and this strange damp stuff everywhere. You have no idea how you got there. You look around, and all your sisters are just waking up too. You take care of what's important first, and in this case, that's cleaning yourself up. You clean your legs, your abdomen, your antennae. Then you get to work.
As you can see by the first picture, the ants are alive and well despite their frigid ordeal. You can see the tools that came with the kit, a magnifying glass, a plastic stick to start the tunnels, and the little cylinder thing to the left (I'm not sure yet what it is). It seems to be another magnifying device. If you enlarge the picture, you can see the tunnels better. These are the ones I started with the blue stick. The ants haven't done much yet, but even as I make this entry, they are busy chewing their way through the gouged out corner to the left, deepening it. I believe they are working on a tunnel. I have had them only three hours and already they are creating their tunnels.
In the second picture, you can see the tunnel in the corner taking shape. I wish they would crawl into the tunnel I started for them to the right.
In the third picture, you see a body part left over from the previous occupants, remnant of the ferocious battle that took place when I added two black ants to the two that were already inside. Since that brings back bad memories, I won't retell that horrific event. If you want to know more about that, you'll have to read the previous journal entry. The leg is caught between the gel and the wall, and I can't reach it to remove it, especially now that the red ants are living there. I'll deal with that problem tomorrow when the population has settled down somewhat.
All in all, I am glad that I bought the ants. Catching them was taking too long. My main concern now is their life expectancy. The booklet I picked up today tells me that they will probably live for only 3 - 4 weeks. That means they might all be dead by the time school starts.
I apologize for the fuzziness of the pictures. Had trouble taking the closeups. But you get the idea. I hope by tomorrow there will be a recognizable tunnel. I really want to see those tunnels, and the ants running through their tunnels as they go about their duties.
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