THIS BLOG, FOR ONE, WELCOMES OUR NEW INSECT OVERLORDS
Fire ants assemble as a 'super-organism'
This will only tick them off: To understand exactly how the structure worked, the researchers took a raft of several thousand ants and dropped it in liquid nitrogen, immediately freezing it.
(Thanks to Jeffrey Brown)
We're gonna need a bigger blowtorch.
Posted by: Annie Where-but-here | April 26, 2011 at 05:50 PM
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Posted by: Ronald Moss | April 26, 2011 at 06:26 PM
Timothy Leary saw the same phenom. Without a dam single real fire ant in sight.
Posted by: manual tomato | April 26, 2011 at 06:33 PM
I vote for continuing experimentation, determining the effect of fire ants assembling on Ronald Moss's organ. Follow-up with liquid nitrogen is optional.
Posted by: Account Deleted | April 26, 2011 at 06:40 PM
I agree with Slightly Askew.
Posted by: nursecindy | April 26, 2011 at 08:10 PM
I, too, am aligned with Askew.
Posted by: Annie Where-but-here | April 26, 2011 at 09:46 PM
Mmmmmm!! Antcicles!!
*lick*
OW!! IT BURNS!!
Posted by: Punkin | April 26, 2011 at 09:49 PM
Dear Ant Overlords,
Please be advised I had nothing to do with the liquid nitrogen. It was Ronald Moss.
Posted by: hogsatemysister | April 26, 2011 at 09:52 PM
Fire ants? Super-organism?
Yeesh. I suppose I shouldn't complain about the 50 million Argentine ants that have colonized my yard...
Posted by: Spiny Norman | April 26, 2011 at 10:23 PM
I, too, am aligned with Askew.
Posted by: bestmishu | April 27, 2011 at 04:07 AM
What would you do for a Klondike Fire Ant Bar?
bm, you're supposed to write something original or at least ironically unoriginal. That's the game here.
Posted by: Loudmouth | April 27, 2011 at 07:53 AM
My wife saw this and thought it said SUPER ORGASM. She's out digging up my yard looking for the little boogers.
Posted by: Wingnut | April 27, 2011 at 08:19 AM
Wingnut, you ain't by chance married to my ex are you? haha
Posted by: oldfatguy | April 27, 2011 at 09:02 AM
I saw a herd of fire ants go after a beetle once. It was fascinating. One, I was not going to reach in there to rescue the beetle and two, no single ant seemed to be doing much except running around.
But the beetle wound up as lunch, anyway.
BTW, when I was a kid, the preferred way to rid oneself of fire ants when you'd done something stupid like standing still was to use a garden hose. They don't handle pressure well.
Posted by: Steve | April 27, 2011 at 10:28 AM
My Ph.D. dad did post-doctoral research on fire ants for the USDA in Greenbelt, MD, back in the 60's, when I was a wee lad. He was trying to identify the pheromone the ants follow to and from their food supply. Replicate it, spray it on a field, and the colony starves. And, it's species-specific.
They never did isolate it, but other insect pheromone research has provided some effective controls. Like catching Japanese Beetles by baiting traps with their sex pheromone.
Nowadays, the Texas Aggies are having some success against fire ants by infesting colonies with phorid flies, which parasitize individual ants, laying eggs which hatch and eat the ant out from the inside, until the adult fly emerges when the ant's head pops off.
Posted by: bonmot | April 27, 2011 at 04:01 PM
Yes, bon, insects live lives full of fun and dancing. They care deeply about each other.
No, my mistake, that's Disney.
Posted by: Steve | April 27, 2011 at 07:57 PM