Ants are not allowed in my house. They do not pay rent, so they belong
outside. I think ants are great...
Outside. Inside they give me heebie geebies. Too many bad science fiction movies with
people and their skin literally crawling. Yuck.
But, put on a National Geographic documentary about how ants
build and communicate, I am absorbed, fascinated. I think the thing that gets me the most is how
they communicate. According to
Wikipedia, "Ants communicate with each other using pheromones, sounds, and
touch". (Wikipedia - Ant) What they can accomplish with their
communication is amazing.
Imagine the conversation.
Betty the Ant is walking along and meets Stacy. They stop and knock their heads together,
sniff around a bit and now Betty knows that there is a pretty sweet salami
wrapper down the road. Just follow the
road that Stacy marked and bring back lunch.
Betty is on her way and tells Sally to turn around and tells Alice not
to go toward the cupcake anymore, since "the hill prefers meat to
sweet." Eventually all the ants
know the party is no longer at the cupcakes, but is hanging out with the
salami. SWARM! And, on the way there, they set up an ant
body bridge to ford the dishwater to get to the salami. So cool. Kind of invisible and magical how it works.
Imagine looking at humans from an atmospheric observer's
position. We would look just like ants,
except making a bit more noise. Bumping our heads together as kisses in
greetings, and our hands like antenna shake and embrace one another. Pheromones and serotonin mixing together
making connections, creating companions, getting stuff done.
I had some conversations with some friends lately that
affected me deeply. Whether it was me
opening up or a friend telling me about her loneliness there is a great relief in that contact. How desperate we can feel but how refreshed
that intimacy makes us, whether we are on the giving or receiving end.
I wonder if ants are refreshed? I hope they get a little anty wine and relax
and just enjoy the sound of each other's squeaking and the smell of just
hanging out.
If it's only pheromones and knocking heads together, that's
OK. I'd rather that than not have
contact at all.
