deBugged

I have written about ants some time back, and keep being amazed by these critters. Some of them are common and annoying pests, but some, well some are simply amazing. So, here are more fun facts about ants.

White Ants =  Termites and Ants = Wasps. Any Questions?

First of all, did you ever hear the term “white ants” for termites? We do get a lot of calls for white ant problems. Here comes an interesting common misunderstanding: White ants are termites. But then again, termites are more closely related to cockroaches than to ants. Ants on the other hand have originated from wasps, which explains why some species have a nasty sting.

We talk to communicate – Ants smell

Even though rather silent, ants have a highly developed communication; they use pheromones. You might have heard of ant tracks to food sources. Ants leave a scent track when walking back from a food source, encouraging other ants to follow the same track, thus fortifying the signal. Once the food is finished, they stop marking the trail and the signal wears off. But that is not all, ants also have specific alert pheromones; if an ant gets crushed, it emits a pheromone alerting its colony mates. There even are some ant species that use special “propaganda pheromones” in order to confuse their enemies and cause them to attack each other. Furthermore, ant colonies have their own smell which distinguishes them from other colonies. Even within a colony the certain task groups have a different smell, so that they can distinguish between the food foragers, nest workers and others.

Surviving against all odds

Did you know that there is an ant species that lives in underwater nests? They swim and breathe in air pockets in the submerged nests. Furthermore, there are several species, where the worker ants hold onto each other in case of floods and form a floating raft. They are suspected to colonize new territories this way, for example islands. Sounds a bit like Columbus making a move for America?

There is a bamboo-nesting ant species, Cataulacus muticus, which lives in Malaysia. At times it rains a lot and their nest is under the threat of drowning. What would be our solution to this problem? Right, take a bucket and get to work scooping the water out. Ever thought of drinking the water and then relieve yourself outside? That’s exactly what these ants do: Cooperative peeing to save the colony!

Suicidal tendencies anyone? Turn it into a social activity! The so-called Exploding Ants (Camponotus cylindricus) have workers with specialized anatomies that allow them to “pull a trigger” when under threat and the explode. With the explosion, they release a chemical cocktail that will affect and immobilize smaller insect attackers. Now that is some dedication to the colony. It would also make our pest control job much easier if other ants would be like this. Just disturb them and watch the show, hahaha.

Cattle farmers and gardeners

The Leafcutter ants of South America cut pieces out of leaves, but only a few people know that they are not actually then eating the leaves. They rather use them as a cultivation medium for a fungus, grown in the so-called fungus garden. They will only eat their own farm produce.

A large number of ant species have developed a close relationship with aphids, andthe caterpillars of some smaller butterflies (such as hairstreaks, coppers and blues). The relationship is straightforward: Ants milk their “cattle” for the so-called honey-dew and offer protection from natural predators in return for the favour. Sometimes ants even house the cattle inside their nests and transport them to feeding places during the day time (too bad if it is your expensive new garden plants), and take them back to the nest in the evening.

Slave Traders and Amazons

There are innumerous ways of one ant species taking advantage of another, the following two are somewhat outstanding examples:

Ravoux’s Slavemaker Ant, has a somewhat ingenious way of taking over entire colonies. The queen fakes death and thus attracts other ants to drag her to their nest, where she miraculously resurrects, kills the nest’s original queen and aquires her smell (in order to trick the other ants into believing nothing has changed) and then starts laying eggs and taking over the colony. I think this is an extreme case of changing the system from within.

Amazon ants, on the other hand, have evolved to such a state where living without slaves would mean sure death. They are not able to feed themselves and require captured workers to survive. They commonly raid other ant colonies (but seemingly in a non-bloody way, the raided ants are simply stunned by the huge number of slave makers entering their nest, and prefer to flee). They steal the victim’s pupae and hatch them in their own nest (which again has to be done by slaves). Once the new ants are hatched they acquire the smell of the colony, and hence become a part of the loyal workforce. Incredible? It gets better, the slave species are quietly revolting: They kill the female pupas of the Amazon ants (those who do the raids) and leave only males, slowly weakening their ruling class. I think if you replace ants with humans in this case, you would have the story line for the next Hollywood blockbuster, hahah.

Operation? Anybody?

One last note, did you know that even though some ants are pests in hospitals (such as the Pharaoh’s Ant), others are used as surgical sutures. Army ants are allowed to bite in a cut wound, connecting both sides of the cut. Then, their body is torn off, and the mandibles will remain locked allowing the wound to heal. Should you ever happen to get stuck in a South American rain forest and have a major cut, you might consider this option. (Maybe an interesting idea for “I am a celebrity, get me out of here“)

Again, I have mostly concentrated on the amazing aspects of ants. Next time I will deal with negative effects of invasive pest ant species, ants in the home and their sometimes negative effects on our health and property.

What a sight that would be! Pests working out in your local gym? Well, it would certainly get my attention, and make a welcome change to only having the television to stare at! But which pest would you see on which machine? I hate the cycling machine, partly because I find it really hard work, but also uncomfortable, preferring instead to go on the treadmill. But which pest would most likely join me in this exercise?

Let’s imagine the scene:

Treadmill: requires fast legs – Australian tiger beetle. Apparently some species can run as fast as 5.6mph! Well, that should make this exercise very easy for them. The fastest of these beetles can travel about 170 times their body length per second. Now, if the average human could travel 170 times their own body length per second, they would be running about 340mph – Usain Bolt has nothing on this beetle!

Cycling machine: requires strong legs – Robber flies. These flies use their strong legs to grab their prey, which may even be bigger then they are, in mid-flight (a rare method amongst flies apparently). So, they will need to work on the strength in their legs if they are to catch their daily feed easily.

Step machine: requires stamina & climbing – Bed bugs. Bed bugs are wingless insects and so in order for them to be able to reach you to get at your blood (yuck!), they need to be able to crawl up your bed post, up your mattress and then on to you. So, they will need to have stamina & strength to get their feed….especially if you sleep in a bunk bed!

Rowing machine: requires strong arms / upper body – Pigeons. Pigeons have strong wing muscles – apparently wing muscles comprise 31–44% of their body weight – and they are amongst the strongest fliers of all birds. So a good workout on the rowing machine with those wings would ensure they are kept in perfect working condition! I wonder, are Racing Pigeons even stronger?

Exercise mats: requires flexibility – Mice. It seems mice are rather flexible creatures, which is how they are able to get inside our homes, by squeezing through the tiniest of holes to enjoy the warmth of our houses. So, perhaps mice would enjoy the opportunity to practice their contortion antics on these mats!

Weight lifting: requires brute strength – Ants. They can lift 20 times their own body weight. Most humans struggle to lift their own body weight…or is that just me? Not bad going then for such a tiny bug, especially as they have to build all their nests and defend it! Still the more you exercise, the stronger you’ll become, so this is perfect.

Swimming pool: requires good swimmers – Black Rats. They are perhaps surprisingly very good swimmers, and they may well need to be to get about easily in the sewers, where some of them live. Did you know a rat can survive being flushed down the toilet!? (Ok, so a pool is not usually in the gym, but it is usually just next door!!) Squirrels, on the other hand, would not make good swimmers at all – Phelps, you have nothing to worry about!

What about the cross trainer? Which pest would be best on this machine?

Here in the Northeast, the heat over the past few days has bordered on unbearable.  There are heat warnings and heat advisories on the radio.  The malls and pools are packed with folks looking for refuge.  As I drove home yesterday, my car thermometer hit 102 degrees F.  That’s hot!

It got me to wondering what impact all of this heat has on pests?  Sure, ants, stinging insects and flies love the heat, since they are very obviously active in the summer.  But this is more than just summer heat – this is oppressive.

I posed the question above to one of our bug experts and got some interesting information.  For instance, did you know that crickets chirp less when it’s really hot?  While this is somewhat dependent on the humidity, not even crickets want to work when it’s this hot.   Also, would you have guessed that we get an increase in customer calls for pests like milipedes, centipedes and pillbugs when it’s really hot?   The explanation, it turns out, is that pests don’t like this kind of heat any more than we do.  They’re looking for refuge and often find it in basements and crawl spaces where it’s usually cool and damp.

I guess bugs aren’t that different from us after all… they don’t always like the heat and will head off somewhere to cool down.

Ok – You’ve got a picnic planned for the holiday weekend.  You know, the checkered tablecloth, the dogs and burgers cooking on the bbq and Aunt Mary’s homemade potato salad.   To prevent unwanted guests (other than the gazillion calories in Aunt Mary’s potato salad) like ants, wasps, flies and mosquitoes from showing up, here’s a few tips from some of our chief Ehrlich entomologists:

1. Choose a dry location for your picnic.  Bugs like mosquitoes like being near the water too.
2. Encourage your guests not to wear colognes, perfumes and hairsprays to the picnic as these scents attract flying insects and stinging insects like wasps.
3. Insects love bright colors (think flowers).  Keep this in mind when selecting your picnic ware or accessories such as handbags as well as clothing.
4. Cover your food as much as possible to prevent flies and stinging insects and their contamination. For example, cover the tops of soda cans with aluminum foil and poke a straw through the foil.  This prevents stinging insects from flying into the can.  If one does land on your drink, don’t swat at it.  This simply annoys the insect.  Let it take its drink, and it will leave.
5. Fill a large bucket with sugar water on the outside of your picnic area, away from your guests.  This will serve as an attractant, as opposed to you and your food.
6. Wipe down your picnic area with vinegar or lay down citrus peels, which serve as a natural pest repellent.
7. Apply insect repellent spray to your clothing.
8. Use citronella candles around the picnic site.
9. And lastly, enjoy your pest-free picnic!

While researching for my origin of pest names blog post, I came across a large number of different ant species with strange names. Going deeper into details, I found that there are some truly amazing stories behind some of the names; and while ants are considered pests once they enter our homes or destroy plants in our gardens, they play a very important role in the wild.

I also noticed that there are a large number with ingenious names, maybe only topped by the common names of butterflies. Have you heard of Gigantiops Destructor (The Big Eyed Destroyer), Marauding Ants, Australian Meat Ants, Thrifty Ants, Slave Maker Ants and Emery’s Wretched Ants?

Bald Headed Ants: I didn’t know that ants have hair on their head, but it surely makes me happy that not only humans suffer from hair loss, hahaha.

Crazy Ants: These ants are most probably named because of their erratic way of running around and are one of the world’s most invasive species.

Bullet Ants: Bullet ants are named so because of their extremely painful sting, the pain of which is said to resemble a bullet shot. Another name, “24 hour ant” gives an indication of the duration of the pain suffered by a victim. The sting of bullet ants is considered to be the most intense among all insect stings, with highest rating on the so-called Schmidt Sting Pain Index (More about that in another post). I thought “Bullet” is scary enough, but the pain has been described as “pure intense brilliant pain, like walking over flaming charcoal with a three-inch nail embedded in your heel” in one American Entomologist report [PDF]. Now this really IS scary.

Jack Jumper Ants: Sounds like a good tempered and jolly fellow to you? Hmm, read on. They do indeed move around in a jumping manner and are said to be able to jump around 20 cm. However, even though the Jack Jumper sounds like a fun ant,  3% of sting cases resulted in anaphylactic shock causing more deaths in Tasmania than spiders , snakes, wasps and sharks combined.

Trap Jaw Ants: A superlative is achieved by Trap Jaw Ants. They can open their jaws 180 degrees and once they see prey close them immediately. They are known to have the fastest bite in the natural kingdom.

Lemon ants: They are named so because they are supposed to taste like lemons (an interesting addition to the entomangeur’s menu); but then again they are also yellow in colour so who knows. More interestingly, Lemon ants are renowned for their gardening skills. They are the creators and keepers of the so-called “Devil’s Gardens”.

Lemon ants live only in the hollow branches of one specific tree species. In forests there is much competition between plants for light, so these ants had to ensure the wellbeing of their home. Here’s what they do: they inject their own herbicide (formic acid) into the leaves of all other plant species and consequently kill them. This way, they create gardens exclusively for their host trees. The relationship between ant and tree is a lasting one and of mutual benefit; some of the gardens are more than 1,000 m2 and estimated to be around 800 years old.

If only we could train those ants to specificallly kill the weeds in our gardens… I guess Brigitta  would be very happy about constructive help from ants in the garden. But there is so much more to tell about ants. For Instance: did you know that there are Slave-Making Ants that do not work and have other species work for them? More soon, promise.