Day 2 ~ July 13, 2011
by Jo Rebeka on 07/16/11
For anyone who missed the thread yesterday, some enterprising ants in my backyard scavenged up a tiny bit of spilled Z-99 frit and carried it back to their nest for whatever prupose ants have in collecting beautiful glass.
In the interest of science, (and because I could not resist) ...... I went out and dribbled a little more Z-99 in the same spot where it got spilled yesterday, and look what happened!
Not only did they go get the new glass, but they moved everything they had already gathered in closer to their nest. Before you panic, this is still a very tiny amount of glass, it just looks like a lot because the photo is so extremely magnified!
I wanted to get a little closer, and this is what I saw:
Then, as I was looking around, I saw this!!!!!
Yes, a tiny stringer log, which they must have gotten from the same area. My old studio is right off this patio, so apparently I missed this little bit of stringer when I was sweeping, but the ants sure didn't!
And finally, for a little bit of scale:
I couldn't really tell whether or not this guy in the lower left is actually moving that bit of frit, but it's a pretty amazing shot either way. You can also see that they are not only collecting the Z-99, they are carrying it down inside their nest.
Stay tuned, next I am going to experiment with different colors of frit and see how they respond....... this is really fascinating!
