Since some of you seem to be curious…
(I LOVE that you care, by the way)
Here’s what happens when an ant dies in a tunnel.
The ants dismember the carcass (that’s right… they pull it apart piece by piece), and then carry the pieces up and out, where they scatter the body parts above ground.
A very grisly affair, to be sure.
I’ve tried to come up with a pithy remark or deep metaphor based on this observation, but I think I’m too brain-dead from the school tour I just went on. Maybe you can do better?
Oh, and you can get YOUR NASA-trained ants here. The habitat is $19.95 and it’s around $15 more to get the ants shipped to you (I thought they were included in the $19.95, but I was wrong. Harumph.)
***
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xo Jen
January 9, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Thanks, I was kinda wondering too. This pregnancy has taken what was left of my brain from my first pregnancy so I have no smart thoughts for this :-)
January 9, 2008 at 3:06 pm
wow… that is fascinating
January 9, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Thank you! I feel comforted and grossed out all at the same time.
January 9, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I’m dying to get that ant habitat!But, wow, $15 for a few ants? Do you think it’d work if I put a piece of brownie out overnight and then just captured some sugar ants for free? Or are the ants that you order a completely different kind?
Do the ants you get come from NASA, too, or from some lady who leaves out brownies every night?
January 9, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Hmmph. Did. NOT. know. that!
I always read you to get my comedy or creative fix in. But NOW. Now I even get a science lesson!
That seriously is one cool gift.
January 10, 2008 at 7:38 am
ew. kinda glad i haven’t eaten yet today… :)
January 10, 2008 at 10:39 am
What a nice memorial. And really, you would think that ants would be included because it’s not really an ant farm without, you know, ants.
January 10, 2008 at 3:50 pm
All hail the deep religious significance of the ant’s death ritual….
They scatter the body parts of their comrades to the four corners of the habitat to serve as a reminder to the Gods Whose Big Eyes Stare Down At Them From Beyond The Glass of the fragility of life and futility of doing nothing but work, work, work until the day you die.
Amen.