Alien wasps abduct ants

Now here's an alien abduction story with a difference -- Alien Wasps Abduct, Drop Ants to Get Food:

Looking for a way to banish ants from your picnic? According to a new study, wasps have developed a unique method for dealing with the pests: airlifting them away from the food.

In an experiment done with wild insects, scientists in New Zealand recently witnessed the common wasp, an alien invader to the island country, competing for food with the native ant species Prolasius advenus.

When a wasp approached a mound of food swarming with ants, the wasp would pluck an ant from the pile, fly a ways off, and drop the still-living insect from its jaws.

Spring is on its way

Since the World Cup in June and July ("feel it--it is cold!") the weather has warmed up considerably, and now the camellias in our garden are blooming. Spring is in the air, and it feels as though winter is past, though past experience makes me think that there could be a couple more cold snaps before it's gone completely.


Unfortunately the flowers in direct sunlight seem to wither and drop almost as soon as they have opened.



And I'd heard about the birds and the bees, but no one told me about the ants!

Ant mega-colony takes over world

BBC - Earth News - Ant mega-colony takes over world: "Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another.

The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.

What's more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together.

Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica."