The Ants Go Marching

Killed my first cockroach of season the other night, got to love the creepy crawlies. Not everyone does, but most four and five year olds do. Whenever my kindergarten class is outside, they must show me every bee, ladybug, caterpillar, ant and fly they find. Since they’re so interested in insects the next two weeks are going to be "Bugs Days". Today’s class was all about ants. Preparing for the class was actually fascinating, which surprised me. If I were not a teacher I know what I would be "an insect specialist". I could go the whole forensic scientist, CSI, real life Grissom route. Okay maybe not, but I am now thinking about getting an ant colony when I get back to Canada.

Neat things I learned about ants*:

-Ants "talk" by smell and the use pheromones. Another ant can tell the health, nutrition
and job function just by the scent. When a gather-ant finds food she lets off a chemical all the way back home for the others to follow.
-Honeypot ants have a special worker that just eats, and eats, and eats to store food for the rest of the colony. They can hardly moved cause their too fat. These are normally the ants that are considered delicacies, yum yum.
-Weaver ants make their "hills" in trees by sewing together leaves.
-Some types of ants raid other colonies, steal the eggs. Once hatched they become workers even though they are not related to the queen. A few species wouldn’t be able to feed themselves because they’ve become so dependent on this slave labour.
- Ants have been known to "herd" different species of caterpillars. Daytime the caterpillars are lead to feeding areas and at night brought into the anthill. In return the caterpillars produce honeydew when massaged by the ants.

*I’ve rewritten these facts but all facts can from a preschool site I was looking at. They may or may not be 100% factual I have no idea.