Ants and Wasps are so stupid!

There are plenty of extinct insects found in ancient amber all the time.

Elaine-1503791, you're fighting a bit of a losing battle I'm afraid. The reason they choose to build there is because the position is great. And you're making it great by mowing it and having nice secluded eaves under your roof. The poor things cannot do otherwise.

Are those insects found in amber extinct. or just long time dead?

Elaine-1503791, I suspect that the ants love the short grass, maybe they even take the clippings down. You're giving them a wonderful place to set up house :)

Atsidi, there are plenty that are genuinely extinct. Some have been found in amber, others in more traditional fossils. For a truly stupendous example check out Meganeura, an entire genus of extinct dragonfly species that includes individuals with wing spans of 75cm.

Can't say that it bothers me to find that out. Wonder what they fed on?

Hover your mouse over the link (or better yet click it) to find out ;)

Atsidi

Aphids are my nemesis and the ants that raise them.

Ladybugs. They not only eat aphids, they don't pester us humans and they are cute as the dickens.

I live in rural northeastern PA and last fall our area had a swarm like I've never seen before. Around a hundred or two hundred or so found their way indoors through cracks around an air conditioner and then I was faced with controlling them! After removing the AC and closing the window, I used a vacuum cleaner with a hose to contain the intruders. Nevertheless many remained, and a few times a day I'd spot one on the window next to my desk. I'd grab a piece of paper and scoop the ladybug onto it, then open the window and set him/her free to do whatever it is they do.

Fortunately they do not reproduce indoors. But outdoors they're a gardener's best friend.

I live in rural northeastern PA and last fall our area had a swarm like I've never seen before. Around a hundred or two hundred or so found their way indoors through cracks around an air conditioner and then I was faced with controlling them!

Are you sure those weren't Japanese Lady Beetles instead of Ladybugs. The Japanese beetle is a different color (less red in the shell) then the Ladybug.

Yup, here's a recent seed of a cautionary tale.

Stubborn, stupid, or otherwise, ants are hard to get rid of for the simple fact that they go to extraordinary measures to protect their queens. Ordinary poison "baits" don't work because they work too quickly: worker ants die and that "food" source is no longer used. Liquid pesticides don't work (short of total saturation of the surrounding soil) because at the first hint of such toxins in their environment they will move the queen to a safer location and mark-off the contaminated area. Now if you want to talk about dumb insects, there's always cockroaches. Disgusting critters, but wa-a-a-y easier to get rid of than ants.

Beetle, link in #6.1 is busted or something.

cockroaches... I caulk (or weather strip) every single spot a critter could possibly come through and voila', no bugs in the house...

Exactly right, Elaine. Here in South Carolina the polite term is "palmetto bug", and in many instances have surpassed the official state bird in size as well as frequency of sightings.

Decurion_505, I don't know what happened to that link. Sorry, here it is again:

Africanized Bees Attack Florida Man

Decurion_505

Bee (and ant) venoms are mostly simple formic acid

The Spanish noun for ant is hormiga, which closely parallels "formic". Dunno the word for bee, but wasp is avispa.

Elaine,

Since you have woods near your property you probably have a few ant predators around. Some woodpeckers and other birds love ants, dig up the ant nest everyday in the morning. Skunks and possums and other varmints may eat ants at night so you could scoop a little of the nest in the evening too. This is the only way I have found to wear them down with 'kindness' instead of an Armageddon approach.

It takeas a little time but they move or are eaten out.

I like the idea of letting nature do its job for you. For some reason these ants feel safe there, so you have to change the environment so that they change that attitude. Good luck.

just a small question, are they red or black ants?

If you have both red and black ants, stir up the red ant nest and then introduce the red soldier ants to the black ant nest, a shovel full at a time. This may get you a quicker way to dispose of both. An invasion would freak them out.

The gulf is a birthing ground for many animals, I think it will suffer for a while. It is sad.

Elaine

Holy squrimin' vermin Batman! Vlad's got a nifty idea there. Let nature do its thang and pit two species against each other. Then sit back in your lawn chair and enjoy sipping an environmentally correct mixed drink prepared with Al Gore's own corn ethanol based Global Warming Vodka.

heheheheheh,

You made me laugh rickace.

Here is an even more intricate way to rid yourself of ants.

Collect ant lions, which are small bugs that dig a pit of sandy soil and bury themselves down in the center of the pit and wait for the ants to slide into their waiting jaws, place them around the ant nest and watch the action.

It would be like having your own natural 'feeding the christians to the lions' added to the red/black gladatorial fights of my first suggestion.

Elaine, you could even build a little colloseum and invite guests and sell drinks.

Used to entertain myself for hours when I was a kid by taking a few red ands and some black and red ants and putting them in a teacup or small jar, and yes, I was a bored kid without a lot to do. I also got bit by ants a lot in some of my ant studies.

Vlad's dog

You made me laugh rickace.

^_^ my pleasure ^_^

You made me chuckle as well, with the metaphor of gladiatorial fights.

And you have a fine idea there, letting Mother Nature do the job.

A more difficult problem is combating an invasive species imported from a foreign ecology with no efficient predators in its new environment. One example is the kudzu vine imported in the 1800s from Asia as an ornamental shrub and forage crop. Little did we realize that it would become a pestilence in the southeast, where environmental conditions were just what it needed to thrive. In 1953 the USDA branded it as a "pest weed".

Last I'd heard some folks were applying a low-tech solution: turning goats loose on the fields of kudzu.

Shucks, the only bees in my neighborhood are carpenter bees. No honeybees to pollinate my vegetables :( Bummer.

Same here, also some sort of a little bright green bee that I stay away from too. Not a whole lot of either one, but no honey bees at all.

Elaine

If it flies, crawls, bites, stings, or sucks blood, it's probably in my yard!

Ugh. We've got a few flying pests in our yard, but it sounds like you're far worse off.

Re: "Screw the Bees": Bee sure to read all the comments as well. Clipped to GG.

Elaine, we live in the reality of Nature, we can't help but get pissed, it is just that we can't win. Wasps? They didn't seem to predict man, most animals stung by a wasp let out a scream and run away but men favor revenge. When I get stung I want to kill every maggot in the nest plus, I want to squirt, burning gasoline on the adults that are trying to protect the nest. Last year in the fall I made the mistake of stepping on a nest of hornets, I ran a quarter mile trying to get them off of me, they stung the $h!t out of me but I was laughing hysterically at my mistake. My dog was in the same predicament and that added to the laughs. I didn't go back and kill the under ground nest, it wasn't in my yard. They don't know whose yard they are in but it is really hard not to blow the crap out of them.

That's the trouble with the goofy little idiots----they are STUPID! They can't just move into the woods 2 feet away and live happily ever after, instead they choose to make total nuisances of themselves.

I'm *this far* from buying an anteater and nailing one of his feet down in the yard

LOL! Are you sure the anteater would like the squeaky clean ants? At least the cayenne pepper would season them a little.

I favor the idea of eating bugs, who is the biggest enemy of organic gardening or animal husbandry? Insects; if you want to save the planet become an insectivore. Grass hoppers have potential, I have roasted them but they need seasoning. Don't ask me about my first attempt, it was a disaster like Hiroshima; put them on skewers first.

I don't think I have the patience to eat enough ants to get full.

Actually, there's a Jeff Corwin episode on the Food Network (can't remember his shows name there( where he goes to Mexico and is shown how to hunt for ant grubs and turn them into a "good" meal....since he always describes everything as having a buttery taste, can't really tell if he truly enjoyed it or not though.

Elaine, I knew you were joking. I just wanted to make a point that I like to experiment with food however 98% of my meals are perfectly "normal" in some culture. I would like to try some of the stuff on Andrew Zimmer.