Saturday, October 20, 2012

Alamogordo: Ants! Them!


Little red ants

From the first day I moved in, I noted a steady, busy river of tiny red ants flowing in a long line down the sidewalk in front of my stoop.

Last week, curiosity led me to try and follow the line to the end, with ambiguous results.

Today, I followed the westbound line, starting from my stoop, for 65 steps. Then I followed the eastbound line from my stoop, and literally around the corner, for about 33 steps, as you can see in the video below.





Tiny red ants.

When I did some online research, I discovered .....

Oh. Shit.

They might be fire ants. The scourge of the south.

Busy little bastards.

I guess as long as they leave me alone, I won't worry about them.


Radioactive Alamogordo ants


It was 1954. 

A little girl from Alamogordo, found wandering zombie-like in the desert .....

In shock. From what?

Ants. Made giant from the atomic bomb testing. Them!





When I was deciding whether to come to New Mexico or Mexico, ants did not figure into my calculations.


Update 24 Oct 2012: While reading this article, I was led to this blog, and then to this site: Ant Blog. Enjoy.



  

2 comments:

LEJ's Louisiana said...

Gosh, Gomer, Them's worse than Hilleary's e-mail. Will Trumper's super ants in Repugnican's clothing save or devour Us? ~ wwwLEJ.org

Mzuri said...

:-) :-) :-)
Good to hear from you! I'll be spending time in South Louisiana in September - can't wait to get back into some dancing! When it comes to insects, either Dave Robicheaux or crazy-ass sidekick, Clete, said: "South Lousiana is a giant sponge. That's why we keep in constant motion. If you stand still, you'll either sink or be eaten alive by giant insects."