Day 4 ~ July 15, 2011
by Jo Rebeka on 07/16/11
Yesterday I spread a small amount of Arielle's Odyssey blend in the spot where the ants have been picking up the spilled frits, and this morning the frit is mostly gone. I will try to get some photos as the sun moves to a better position. I'm not sure how clearly you'll be able to see it in photos, but they gathered up more than half of what I put out and carried it to their nest already. One Fritzen was heard to comment: "Ah, so that's how big size #1 is... I always wondered!" Looks like they are showing a preference for deeper colors first, but they may gather it all eventually. Everybody has their favorite colors, after all! Also, last night I noticed a new sugar ant hill about halfway between the fire ants and the frit depot, still pretty small, and they had gathered up a couple pieces of Z-99 also. Interestingly, when I was trying to photograph the small hill, the little guys had a fire ant that they were dragging around as well. Strange sight, 15 or more tiny sugar ants with a big fire ant they were tearing apart. Could this be a crime of passion? Was the fire ant basically mugged for his Z-99? The two pieces that were on the sugar ant hill looked too large to be carried by the sugar ants. The plot begins to thicken! While actual crime scene images have not been released, this is an artist's conception of what may have happened. Suspect names have not been released pending notification. You can see here that the fire ants are definitely bringing home the Arielle's Odyssey. By the end of the day they had pretty much harvested all that I put out for them. You can also see in this photo a strong directionality in how they are placing the frit. Their path from the "frit depot" is coming in from the upper right, so it could just be coincidence, but they are laying the frit almost exclusively along the western slope of their hill where it catches the afternoon light and sparkles nicely. Here's the Arielle's Odyssey mix if you want to see it... 
Lastly, somebody asked to see a map of their path. From the fire ant nest (lower left) to the frit depot area (top middle) is almost exactly 20 feet. I haven't timed them, but I'm guessing it's about a five minute walk for them, and as you can see they are bypassing a lovely flower garden full of things to snack on. Strange, huh?
