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Post by mipela on May 28, 2016 15:02:06 GMT 10
The Ants are Coming !
When you get away from asphalt and concrete covered ground, invariably, you will find meat ant nests. It is quite educational to stand and observe these reddish coloured little creatures, they are most industrious. You’ll find there are quite distinct parallels in the ant world and our own. Their generic name comes from their purpose in life, that of stripping the meat from dead carcases, be they sparrows or horses. When you find a skeleton picked clean of all skin and everything else, there will be a meat ant nest close by. A dog carcass for instance, would be picked clean in less than three weeks, the crows help of course.
They build underground nests from very small beginnings and as the years roll by, just as our towns do, they expand into cities. Over time, each nest expands considerably, it is not uncommon to find nests 3m to 4m across. Amazingly, you'll find other meat ant nests close by, anywhere from 10m to 100m distant. Close observance will show all these nests are connected by ant tracks and as time passes, the ants clear and widen these tracks to become roadways and over time, are widened into ant “freeways”. Meat ants won't bite you but they are curious so bear in mind, they’re seeking food – it might be you ! They will come to where you are standing, they will crawl up on your shoes but by then, most people move on and out of "danger".
There are many, many entrances to the underground nest and the ants, in great density of numbers, come and go, in and out of these entrance holes, the emerging ants are nearly all on a mission that takes them out into the nearby land and to nearby trees in the never ending quest for food which they return to the nest. The ants seem to eschew nocturnal activity and during wet weather, seek shelter in the nest. I am given to wondering if they man the pumps during heavy rains ?
The ants returning to new nests do it tough indeed as they don't have the luxury of cleared track or roads to walk on, they must drag their loads over grass and bush debris, suffice to say, their production rate is much lower that those returning to the more established nests. These ants cleanse all the plants and trees around their nest including the ground. Observing an ant in the grass, any sort of ant, making it's way back to its nest with whatever food it has found, is a lesson in perseverance. From your vantage point on high, you can see the obstacles in front of the ant. You will marvel at his dogged persistence in struggling through the jungles he’s in and the unwavering adherence to his general direction of travel.
As you observe a nest, it comes to you that what you're looking at is a city. It has millions and millions of inhabitants. It has many, many entrance shafts, just like railway stations leading to the maze of interconnecting underground tunnels. And then you get to contemplating how their life is structured. They probably have a line of royalty, there is a queen and probably, more than one queen and the workers are all dedicated to the wellbeing of their queen.
Ants all work in harmony. There are no entrepreneurs and no bosses. There are no unions, no policemen, no government, no fights and no aggression to one another. They exhibit collective purpose, not individual purpose as we humans do.
Maybe, just maybe, we can learn something from this marvel of nature ?
By Mipela
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Post by Sediba on May 29, 2016 19:51:06 GMT 10
I have learnt two things from them. I have a 4m nest behind my container.
They collect tiny rocks which they spread on the surface of the nest. They use these as solar panels, taking the warm ones down into the nest and bringing up the cold ones. They recycle them.
I have no rubbish removal in the bush. The tins and cartons I take to the Maidenwell tip whenever I pass thru. The organic I collect on the kitchen sink in a black polythene bucket. As it fills it attracts fruit flies. Not many, they ain't so bad up here. I empty it beside the meat ant's nest every third day or so. They devour it all, including any fruit fly eggs. This disrupts the fruit fly breeding cycle. It's a marvellous organic rubbish disposal system.
Occasionally they attack the shack and try to build a nest underneath or higher up. When they do this I slaughter the incoming army till it gives up all ideas of occupation and retreats. Apart from these borderline skirmishes, I foster them and they are well fed.
I have spent hours, whole days observing them.
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Post by Turtle on May 30, 2016 0:51:03 GMT 10
Very interesting reading, Mipela and Sediba.
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Post by Sediba on May 30, 2016 11:37:40 GMT 10
The fact is, I'm in Briz Vegas and I'm bored. I have many things to do to get ready for next weekend when I will be invaded by a horde of old bastards like myself. But I'm stuck down here in the river delta till Wednesday.
And so, to while away, I will just ramble. Sorry Mip.
When we observe intelligent behaviour in little critters like ants, that are devoid of all intelligence, what iz it we are observing? We are observing emergent or collective behaviour.
'Well, it looks remarkably like intelligence'. You say, and who could deny it?
Those little meat ants are also peculiar in that they go to sleep at night, as I think Mip mentioned. But ants do not rest. You wind them up, they go till they die. Little energisers, they'll surprise ya.
I speculate here, I have no scientific evidence. I speculate that because the Sun selfishly refuses to come out at night just when we need it the most, that the little ants compensate. That is, their little solar panels of little stones no longer work, the stones get cold. Their incubator nurseries deep below will go cold. So they all head home at night, every last one, and they collect enmass around the incubating chambers and so provide a blanket, knitted with their own bodies, to keep the eggs warm. If so, then in a way they do not go off duty when the sun sets, but just change their routine.
How iz it? How is it that they know to do all this? They're really dumb little bastards. Is there truly some great omnipotence, some source, or all-sauce of Life that even the little ants can plug their tiny little, pitiful few neurones into? Is there an overriding consciousness?
If not then how is it so?
Mip says we can learn a lot from Ants, and I for one agree with him. He never said a truer word.
(why wasn't this posted in the Science Forum?)
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Post by Workman on May 30, 2016 13:23:03 GMT 10
How iz it? How is it that they know to do all this? Is there truly some great omnipotence, some source, or all-sauce of Life that even the little ants can plug their tiny little, pitiful few neurones into? Is there an overriding consciousness? If not then how is it so? Ah Greg, deep down, you know that yes there is a universal consciousness, my friend. And it's always there, always listening and hearing you. When you're ready, you'll accept. And on this same topic, as our friend Epic writes: "Yes, I agree with you, that heaven is what you make it and it exists in each of our lives, now. One has only to remove the metaphorical scales and become aware of it, and having become aware, open ourselves to the freedom that this brings. The difficult part is breaking through all the constructs of thought and concept-formation that we engage in all the time. Many people do this through formal meditation, and that is one most widely recommended method, focusing on the space between the thoughts.
I've had varied success with this at times, but find it physically difficult (I fall asleep). Many times, though, I experience a real of joy just being alive and a sense of oneness ("communion") with all around me, both sensate and non-sensate.
Heaven can be just sitting on your deck.
And you don't have to be a religious believer to access it.
As for the after-life? There is no after-life, really. Consciousness never dies. Just the vessel in which it is manifested wears out, and consciousness remains in another form."
Cheers, Workman
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Post by madametarot on May 30, 2016 13:41:33 GMT 10
The only force is gravity everything else is happenstance.
When we are alive our brain never stops.
When we sleep our brain categorises and prioritises memory in storage and if there is still not enough to keep our brain busy it makes up stories (called dreams) Daydreams happen when nothing else is happening.
It is a simple equation we are alive (brain active) or we are dead (brain inactive).
If our brain has no tasks it makes stuff up.
Or something like that.
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Post by mipela on May 30, 2016 13:59:53 GMT 10
I agree with MT, if our brain has no tasks, it makes things up. For myself, this is true. I go to0 bed but the brain is active, 'thinkin' 'bout things'. All sorts of meaningful stuff and a lot of distractive stuff. Every night I have at least 3 dreams, sometimes 4. Mostly, they're work related and I've got the shitty end of the stick. Mostly it's construction of one form or another and some mining. I keep going back to Bougainville, to Panguna but the landscape is entirely changed. The result of all this is I wake up stressed and buggered and then, reality kicks in and Boy ! Am I relieved ! It was all a dream, it's now all behind me. It's enough to drive a man to drink ! Mipela
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Post by mipela on May 30, 2016 14:01:14 GMT 10
I agree with MT, if our brain has no tasks, it makes things up. For myself, this is true. I go to0 bed but the brain is active, 'thinkin' 'bout things'. All sorts of meaningful stuff and a lot of distractive stuff. Every night I have at least 3 dreams, sometimes 4. Mostly, they're work related and I've got the shitty end of the stick. Mostly it's construction of one form or another and some mining. I keep going back to Bougainville, to Panguna but the landscape is entirely changed. The result of all this is I wake up stressed and buggered and then, reality kicks in and Boy ! Am I relieved ! It was all a dream, it's now all behind me. It's enough to drive a man to drink ! Mipela
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Post by cster on May 30, 2016 17:54:27 GMT 10
Ants hey, sort of brings into being that saying "forgive them lord for they know not what they do" Yet they do rather well at what they do, do. It does beggar the question what happens when one of them wants to go to the toilet? Does the ant blanket get smaller?
I also have bad dreams, mostly work related, in service to the community fixing faults in phone lines, has me digging up and fighting with all manor of wrigglies, waking up distressed is normal mate.
Ants work till they drop, It might be something we'd like doing if there was a job or tasks we enjoyed doing that could have the workload varied to suit our physical condition on any day.
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Post by Sediba on May 30, 2016 18:14:37 GMT 10
How iz it? How is it that they know to do all this? Is there truly some great omnipotence, some source, or all-sauce of Life that even the little ants can plug their tiny little, pitiful few neurones into? Is there an overriding consciousness? If not then how is it so? Ah Greg, deep down, you know that yes there is a universal consciousness, my friend. And it's always there, always listening and hearing you. When you're ready, you'll accept. Hi Mate, you iz a good guy. Thank you. But I'm afraid that was a rhetorical question. I know the answer. I was just makin a point. I have been watchin the Ants as Mip suggested.
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Post by Sediba on May 30, 2016 19:29:31 GMT 10
These ants really are amazing.
The colony I own is huge, 4 metres long, maybe 5. It is only as old as my shack, because they have built on the spoon drain behind my shack and that was only created with the bull dozer after the cutting was made.
I used to toss my rubbish into the ravine. One day I noticed a track thru the bedraggled thing I call lawn. It was about 200mm wide (8") Thousands of ants were moving along it in both directions. At first I thought they must be taking advantage of the way the rain water coursed across the shelf that is my little yard. But eventually I realised that all those 1000s of little tiny stones that tile the roof of their nest were being removed from the track. Two birds with one stone. They were clearing the track and mining the stones as an offshoot of their activities.
I followed the trail to just over the edge of the slope thats falls away down. That was where I dumped the rubbish. I changed the location totally, over to the other side of the shack and out to an edge that drops into a different gully. It worked. They stopped using the track. One day I was standing on the back deck looking up the slope. As I looked down I saw the ants on the ground. There was a new road there. And it was a tiny-stone-miners strike. I got down off the deck, only a metre high, and I followed the track. Unbelievably it went all the way to the new rubbish tip.
So I started feeding them direct. I place all the scraps beside their mound. They demolish it, but they still make tracks to other locations. Recently they have decided that the ironbark beside the container is a very interesting place to them. Early in the morning they head towards it in droves. I sit where Polly is sitting in the photo in the other thread. Coffee in hand. They pour past me and climb the tree. As far I can see they seem to go right to the top. Wot for? I don't yet know. I can only imagine there are aphids up there that only secrete honey early in the morning. By midday all activity around that tree has ceased.
The neighbour below has a dog. He has discovered my rubbish disposal system. Because I put meat scraps out there too. Where I dump the food is beside the nest but shrouded by an old dead lantana bush. Somewhat impenetrable. The dog sorta tries to get up on this bush and balance. Then, lips pulled wide back, canines stretched daintily forward, he lowers his head to get at a bone without getting bitten.
These ants don't bite with any toxin. They nip, it's painless, but enough to be felt. When they swarm at any movement near their nest, such as dumping the rubbish, it pays to run away quickly.
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