ANTS!!!

Have you heard of the Facebook group “A group where we all pretend to be ants in an ant colony?” It’s a lighthearted roleplaying group where the members pretend to be ants. There are elections for the Queen and everyone posts ant related memes and stories. At present, it has 1.7 million members. I recently joined and it's made me a tad more retrospective about eusocial insect. I’ve interacted with them in two states to date and those experiences have widely differed.

Pennsylvania Ants

Ants in Pennsylvania are a nuisance. They invade your picnic blanket and, if left alone, will drag off your food in a comical way. Some will invade your home and chew up your wood (far less comical). Occasionally, you’ll spot a red one that will sting, but on the whole, the ants of my childhood were the nearly half inch carpenter ants. As a child, I thought these were the gold standard of ants and I didn’t understand why the others were so tiny.

I can’t even remember receiving any stings or bites from ants before I moved to South Carolina. Like I said, ants were just a nuisance worthy of a casual brush to ensure they didn’t invade your space. I knew some people who had to call an exterminator for their home. I’m sure anyone reading this who has had to make such a call finds my analysis to be deficient, but I’ve also known people who have had to make that call for ladybugs as well and they don’t get nearly as bad a rap as ants. Home infestations happen and are unfortunate, but in my experience I run into insects outside far more than in. To me, Pennsylvania ants are benign creatures in need of control every once in a while, but nothing more. Even the mounds are small, a couple inches in diameter and nothing to worry about in the case of stepping, and that was how my Pennsylvania centric brain associated ants.

South Carolina Ants

Then I moved to South Carolina. Now, I'd visited the state before. In my childhood, we'd visited Myrtle Beach and then there were multiple trips to visit the in-laws, but I'd never noticed how pervasive the ant population is.

When we moved here in the fall, we quickly noticed that the camper was parked on top of a hill. Unfortunately, as it was hidden beneath some rocks and uneven ground, this discovery was made when Mark stepped on it and he was quickly rewarded with the harsh stings of fire ants. Oh yes, fire ants. As that one was below the camper, we dispatched it fairly quickly.

As we spent more time here, we spotted more pop up through the yard. A dinner plate sized dirt mound emerged between the camper and my parking spot which plagued me, especially at night. I was always afraid that I'd track some stinging workers into our home. It subsided with the weather and then my spot changed, so, crisis averted.

Then the warm weather arrived and so did the ants. I was ill prepared. They bubbled up out of the ground in massive colonies sometimes a foot in diameter. I've walked through fields and seen mounds almost a foot tall. I watched as the cracks in the driveway filled and blossomed with thin, continuous dirt mounds teeming with crawling workers. As I jog along the side of the road, I have to avoid the frequent colonies that seem to sprout up over night. For my knees, I’ve always tried to jog on the side of the road instead of the hard payment, but sometimes the threat of upsetting a new colony forces me onto the asphalt.

The stings hurt. We had one near the camper that we’d ignored because it was far enough away, and we try to live and let live. Then one of the dogs stepped in it and when I tried to get her out, she stepped on my sandaled foot. I received two quick stings before I could extricate my foot from the situation. As the dog in question kept going back, we took care of the mound and it plagues us no longer.

Despite the feelings of horror that I have developed since moving to South Carolina, I still enjoy the Facebook group. Roleplaying is always a good time and this is simple and lighthearted. While I haven’t posted any original material yet, I’m sure I will, and with that many members, there’s always new content allowing me to eat or rally behind our Queen.

Don’t forget to check out the chainmaille shop. Half of all profits will be donated to Humanity Forward. They’re issuing microgrants to those most affected financially by the COVID-19 pandemic and are working towards policies that will move humanity (not ants) forward.