How can you not LOVE ants???? OK, they do bit, it’s nasty, hurts and itches. They crawl into any kind of food, no matter how well you thought you sealed it against them. They do occupy and fiercely defend some of our best bromeliads.
But the again: they are AWESOME! How on earth can they find our food within minutes of putting it down on the table? How DO large ants get into a tightly sealed honey bottle?
And no one who has seen a procession of leaf cutter ants carrying flowers through the forest can seriously hate ants. The most amazing o f all ants, however, must be army ants. They excite the whole forest like a visit by the pope. Small insects try to run, hop, scuttle away by the millions, birds flock to the site, munching up the poor little powerless critters while chanting and chatting and attracting more opportunistic birds and poo-eating butterflies.
And army ants are fast. Man, watch out, they can probably outrun you (at least after a month of Pitilla food). The most amazing ant event occurred yesterday (only briefly mentioned by Robin below): the ant war! Army ants (Robin’s irritation bin number 7) encountered a swarm of tiny ants (number 3) moving house on the deck of the station. War broke out in Petrona’s slippers. The battle was fierce, with large army ants biting small ants to death and carrying them and their pupae away in no time. But the little ones did not give up. They fought back like the bravest of all soldiers and the army ants eventually gave up (or had enough food for the day). After 20mins of super-action, everything disappeared within a few seconds and all that was left was 2 dying army ants…..what an event. (Note: this is not at all related to today’s Remembrance day or to Nicaraguans preparing to invade us only 10kms away, nor do I in any way support the glorification of war!). But it was SOOOOO exciting!
Some of my best Pitilla times were ant times.
So I forgive the ants their annoyingness and deeply admire their awesomeness.