Things that goes crunch in the night

The contract between me and the ants that frequent my apartment is pretty straightforward:

  1. As ants, you get to keep whatever you touch.
  2. Seriously, if you touch it, please take it away.
  3. I, as human, get to dispose of any ant I see, in any form I choose, depending on my mood and free time.
  4. If you play nice, the bug spray will stay at the locked cabinet, and we can all go about our respective businesses.

Now, let’s examine a case where a crumb of sorts (OK, 99.7% that it’s a single corn flake) is left overnight on the floor.

Expected result:

  1. Come morning, no crumb on the floor.
  2. No ants on the floor.

 

Actual:

  1. A convoy of 300 ants stretches across the apartment.
  2. On one side – that damn corn flake.
  3. On the other side – a disarray of confused ants, going in all directions.
  4. The corn flake is exactly where it fell on the floor the day before.
  5. Corn flake is surrounded by 50 ants or so. Half of them are already dead (out of shame, if there is some decency in them), the rest seems to be pushing and pulling, but getting no actual movement out of the corn flake.

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