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Keeping your files backed up and in order is a lot of work and I find it easy to put off the task to a later time.
But, today I'm going to back up my kindle books. I want to be able to read them, and more importantly share them in the future.
I'm glad that for most books that I really love I bought a hard copy AND the digital version.
Untangling myself from Amazon has been tricky. I used to shop on there every week. No longer. I still listen to some audible books but I'm phasing that out.
Fire Ants? Fire ants need sunlight & thrive on the disturbed margins of forests, they are not good at digging in soil with perennial plants, but love freshly plowed fields and lawns. In nature they are rare, but human "gardening" habits provide an ideal home for these ants.
Odorous House Ants? Again they must have a source of fresh water and these ants love crumbs and sugar from poorly stored human foods.
The unwanted ant arrives because we put up neon signs inviting them in. Then we get mad.
When people want to get rid of insects I encourage them to stop and ask "why?"
It's true there are insects that can cause harm. But often the thing that has attracted the insects in large numbers is your real problem.
Carpenter ants? You may have rotten wooden beams, dry rot, water leaks. They didn't cause these problems. They live in rotting wood. That's their job.
Thief Ants? If they are conspicuous they have found unsealed grease and soon you will have rats too.
I have only been able to get the thief ants to show themselves by offering specifically larvae or solidified bacon fat. This brings them out, they are ubiquitous even if you never see them.
The food richness of human environments is so extreme that when I'm in the park in NYC and want to attract ants, I never use sugar. NYC ants don't care about sugar. But they do get very excited about high quality insect protein. A crushed cricket or dubia will draw far more ants to observe than a bit of candy or even cake crumbs.
Thief ants are even more picky. They will eat sugar, but their diet is more focused on fat, a food many ants will avoid.
(insect protein is low fat generally)
Ants found in association with humans are also less likely to be hostile to colonies of the same species, rather than fight, adjacent colonies may simply merge. (Pavement ants are a notable and conspicuous exception)
Human environments tend to be absurdly rich in food to the point where finding food isn't the primary problem most colonies face. Finding water and shelter and avoiding human intervention become bigger factors in survival.
Perhaps this is why intraspecies war is more rare.
Like many Solenopsis, Solenopsis molesta has multiple queens. This isn't typical for ants in the wild and most species of ants have a single queen. But, species found in human environments tend to have multiple queens more often, I suspect since it makes it harder to destroy a colony.
These ants are not very fast moving, they are methodical, sensitive and very numerous.
They are sometimes confused with The pharaoh ant (Monomorium pharaonis) who move much more quickly.
These books don't have signatures. They are just glued together like a cheap paperback.
Take a moment to marvel at the complexity and perfection of a single thief ant. She is able to make a journey of dozens of meters over the most rough terrain with speed and efficiency. Could you cross a mountain range as effectively? No. You could not.
She collects enough food not just for herself, but enough to raise many more ants back in their nest. She is nearly blind, but never gets lost.
As an individual she is very weak, but larger insects will avoid these ants for a reason.
Even ants can't "get rid" of thief ants.
"What should I do to get rid of thief ants?"
Clean up the grease they are enjoying. Why do you have a pile of grease laying around? They are just trying to help you by cleaning it up. You could try to poison them, but they are very crafty & probably smarter than you.
Please remember ants are predators. In addition to annoying you by walking through your pantry they eat the eggs and young of the rest of the insects in your house.
Your house belongs to the bugs, there is nothing you can do.
Today's ant of the day is Solenopsis molesta, the thief ant.
"Thief ant" is a more general common name that may cover other similar species all of whom are small and dig tunnels into the nests of larger ants to steal their larvae.
Thief ants are primarily focused on obtaining protein and fat. They can become pests in human homes if grease isn't in a sealed container. They can sting, but their stinger is so tiny it is mostly ineffective on human skin.
You must respect the hustle.
Even the ones into camping and survival??
@bewo001 @Limnobotanik @Anke @catselbow @lavaeolus
Wow! thank you for writing this article. The web isn't just getting worse, in some places it's getting a little better. This really cheered me up.
It looks like it has sections, but there are two sets of them inside of each other. As if one orange grew inside of another. Perhaps it's just a genetic error, maybe something off with the blossom?
It's a really interesting pattern!
The lego designer says you should please pretend they are Renalia hueberi.
In fact, given what I've seen I think they make a point of NOT keeping eggs and pupae near the queen. That might be a way to ensure the colony can't be destroyed just because one location is ruined.
And larvae are a target for many predators, other raiding ants, even bears.
Carpenter ants love to have multiple locations. They keep the queen in the most secure one. In the wild these could be dozens of meters away from each other.
Just saw the queen of the carpenter ant colony. She looks great. Hard to believe she's almost 4 years old! She's still huge shiny & black like when I met her & saw her lay her first eggs.
She's clearly planning for a big expansion in summer. She lives in the upper log, but her daughters carry all the eggs to the other nest to raise them there. (So, just because you find eggs doesn't mean the queen is nearby.)
Had a big pile of eggs with her just now, daughters frantically carrying them off.
I think they have their server set not to just let you surf it if not logged in. But if I paste the link here I'm able to connect. After all I follow @Adria !