You can often find indoor insect "pests" such as cockroaches, flies, and ants in your house in the winter. Ants hardly belong in that grouping in my mind, since next to bees, they are probably my favorite insect. Yet their penchant for "cleaning up" sometimes translates to raiding kitchens - which ive also had to deal with, so pest is a term I understand.
In any case, yet another instance of finding a bug without trying occurred the other day while I sat in a chair with my napping baby. This ant was calmly strolling across my stomach giving me plenty of opportunity to photograph her. I say "her" because all ants you see patrolling your counter are female. The males are infrequently-seen winged creatures which emerge in large numbers to mate with new queens. Maybe you have seen them if you're a sidewalk/lawn searcher like me.
After I took her picture, I gently pinched her up and tossed her on the rug. I remember learning that insects and other small animals do well with falling from heights due to their weight/surface-area ratio. They never get up enough speed to fall hard due to wind resistance. I'm sure she landed safely and moved on to picking up crumbs around the high chair.
1 comment:
one wonders what goes through her little ant brain. must be like time travel. 1st i'm on some skin, then i'm instantly 1 minute away on a carpet. at least i was only gently pinched.
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