I am not happy about ant bites but I am sure it was fast.

The result was interesting.

Can you imagine, with how big our fire ant mounds get, how intricate their tunnels must be?

I haven't seen ants that big since the farm when I was a kid.

I knew nests went down a long way.

My grandpa would pour gasoline down the center of the nest.

This would be tall mounds.

Then set it on fire underground.

I think the ant had a better end this way.

for cool critters like horned toads and armadillos. But fire ants are totally useless, IMO, because nothing eats them, and they bite me for no reason at every opportunity.

They have no natural predators, except for me whenever they live within a hundred yard radius of my home.

I treat the mounds when I see them, and they build ridiculously fast.

My father was hospitalized because of fire ants. Yes, they are vicious things.

On edit: This article made me laugh last year:

http://blog.chron.com/leonhale/2012/10/fire-ants-can%E2%80%99t-beat-%E2%80%99em-why-not-raise-%E2%80%99em/

on top of your tv and you'll get all kinds of channels

They're baaaaaaaack...

they must do it by instinct, but having storage chambers and working together the way they do - it's like they can think!

and learned nothing that he didn't know before.

The intricacies of ant colonies and you're going to quibble over a few ant lives?

Besides, he posted a 30 day notice ext to the ant colony. They are the ones who chose to ignore it.

Yeh. What could he teach with that that he couldn't teach without it?

I agree with the theory that insects like bees and ants have "hive intelligence" -- the whole is so much more than the individual or even the sum of its parts.

I know we have ant colonies (and subterranean termite colonies) underneath the cement slab of our house. I wonder just how deep they go into the hard clay soil. Fascinating.

or hot..

errrr....

I contemplated doing something like this on our land in Texas. They had built a nest right outside the screen door and had made their way inside when he has attacked while playing.

I did kill the mound right outside the door using various ways.

Does this make me a sociopath or a serial killer as people on this thread have called the scientist?

I've been fighting Texas Leaf Cutting Ants in my yard all summer. I hope they go underground and stay there this winter. They about destroyed two tombstone rose bushes I have in the yard. They are close to 20-30 yrs old and those ants stripped one in one night. I about freaked out! I ran to a landscaping nursery and have been poisoning them since. They have also stripped two 30 ft tall cyprus trees I have next to the garage too. I had to cut one down this spring because it was already dead and there was nothing I could do to save that tree. It broke my heart to cut it down.

Listen, I think all creatures are cool but when they destroy my landscaping, I'm going to fight back.

Thank you for sharing

Let me guess... burnt ants?

In all seriousness, it's pretty amazing and beautiful how these colonies are constructed.





http://www.core77.com/blog/architecture/walter_tschinkels_aluminum_casts_of_ant_colonies_reveals_insect_architecture_23607.asp