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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Do pardon the questionable link between ants and anything having to do with transhumanism, thanks. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Today I saw something so cool I can’t understand it. I longed to have Anders present to explain it, the man who so generously gave me a treasured bug book.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I was in the saddest place on earth, and after a couple hours I just needed a break, so I went out walking about the grounds and noticed a huge ant war going on, so I decided to watch, pick a team, cheer them on, that sorta thing. As I did so, an idea occurred to me. Ants are related to bees, and I know that when bees are swarming, they will not sting. You can scoop them with your bare hands, they won’t sting; I never did get a sting fooling with swarming bees. The war these gals were doing reminds one a bit of swarming bees, so I wondered what would happen if I tried to handle them.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I figured it was worth the risk of a few ant bites or stings or both (they are two different things with ants, for they have both a mechanical bite with their powerful mandibles and a sting on their abdomen tip analogous to a bee sting.) So I held my hand in the midst of the ant war and hoped for the best. Not one ant took the least bit of interest in stinging or biting me. So I scooped up a wad of them. Some of them wandered about on my hands and up my arm, but they were more interested in finding an opposing ant to fight than to bite me.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I know for sure ants will sting and bite if you mess with their nest, so I went over to one of the holes and put my finger right in the stream going out. They went around it. So I figured I now at least had the scent of the bad guys on my finger, so I went over to the good guy’s nest, and offered them a bite. But no takers. I fooled with those ants for several minutes longer than is proper for a grown man to mess with a bunch of damn bugs, but never did I get a single bite or sting. So I went and got my son, and demonstrated the experiment again, and again no bites, no stings.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Conclusion: warring ants don’t bite humans. Only each other.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>In these photos you can see pairs of ants going at each other, and singleton ants looking for an enemy:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><img width=687 height=528 id="_x0000_i1026" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CF8CB0.C5B15660"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>You can scoop them right up, no bites, no stings:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><img width=498 height=365 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.jpg@01CF8CB0.C5B15660"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Happy solstice!<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>