Nice Day to Start Again.....
by Jo Rebeka on 07/23/11We had quite a bit of rain last night (okay, this is the desert... it rained for 20 minutes!), so this morning when I went outside, I wasn't too surprised to see the Fritizens rushing around madly, though they seemed to be more interested in gathering elm seeds than in emptying their underground tunnels, so I took that to mean they had weathered the storm pretty well and the thunder and lightning had just made them rather hungry.
I had alot of studio work to do, so I didn't stay long, but wished my tiny friends good luck foraging and continued on to my studio.
After a little while, however, as I was working away, I heard something very surprising coming from the vicinity of Ant-ioch... it sounded something like this:
hey little sister ...... (to really get the whole gestalt of the moment, please right click to open the link in a new window, then return here to read the rest....)
Could it be true? I rushed outside to see, and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but two tiny winged fire ants, posing in front of the gates to the city!
What could this mean? Well, just one thing... fire ants appear in winged pairs only when they are ready to start a new colony, and there they were... the winged virgin queen and her short-lived but extremely enthusiastic male consort.
I knew that by Ant-iochian tradition, they would have already undergone what some consider to be the most harrowing aspect of matrimony...
Yes, I can scarcely imagine what is discussed in pre-marital counseling for a young queen, but....
As soon as that was over, the bride bustled inside and the male waited outside, possibly enjoying a final smoke in his last moments of freedom.
Shortly, however, he went inside too. Then she came out, surrounded by a bevy of regular fritizens, grooming and fussing over here just as you would expect before any wedding anywhere...... and a last few words of wisdom......
She did not seem to be in a contemplative mood, however, and pretty quickly they all returned inside, but not before some weisenheimer snapped this:
After everyone went back inside, presumably for the exchange of vows (this is when the "tunnel cam" would be so cool!), it was only a few seconds before a whole bunch of Fritzens came rushing out of the nest and started milling about. I think this must have been the reception, because the bride and groom seemed a bit uneasy and anxious, but everybody else was having a wonderful time....
I thought this was a great "atmospheric" shot, though I'm not completely sure if that is the bride or the groom.
Finally (actually very quickly, the fritizens are NOT into wasting time!) it was time to say goodbye to the newlyweds. As they prepared for their honeymoon flight, I got this one last shot of them together:
As they rubbed their wings together and got ready to take off, I found that I just couldn't stay to watch them fly away. I felt wistful, and even a little sad. I was happy for them, of course but I couldn't help wondering... where will they go? How will they make a life for themselves.... and will there be frit?????
Stay tuned....... I guess I will do the 'Queen's Dream Revealed' tomorrow, since it got so thoroughly pre-empted today!
Day 9 ~ After the Flood
by Jo Rebeka on 07/22/11
Admittedly, WE probably wouldn't call it a flood, but when you live underground, even a mild sprinkle can feel catastrophic. Yesterday you saw what happened at the gangsta hangout, but of course the Fritizens had a better plan to begin with, building their city on the storied plains of the New Persia (also know as Behind the Garage). Not only does this allow them to build a stately entrance to their city, it also has better drainage.
Even so, when the rains came down, the Fritizens responded with an amazing flurry of activity, which primarily centered around dragging stuff up out of the nest and disposing of it in designated areas around the perimeter. I'm pretty convinced now that they really are trying to replicate Mt. Silpios... the area to the west of the main entrance is developing a decided bulge, and over 80% of the frit they harvest is being deposited there.
Oh speaking of harvesting, frit, after a couple of days of inactivity, the fritizens got busy and picked up the remaining Floribunda frit. They did everything but lick the platter clean!
When I peeked out there this morning, even these tidbits were gone. I'm thinking they may be ready for their next color test.... so far I'm not really discerning a big pattern in what they prefer, though they did pick up the Z-99 faster than anything else.... big surprise there! But if they think they're getting anymore of that precious vitreous ambrosia, they are sadly mistaken.
During the storm (night before last), this was the scene on the plains of Ant-ioch:
...pretty much total pandemonium, ants scurrying everywhere, dragging sticks and elm seeds and divans and color TVs up out of the ground. I wish I had a video of it, it was fairly amazing, and for the most part they seemed to know where to put things, though I did see a couple of them hesitate... mostly with pebbles and little sticks, which they deposited on the opposite side of the hole from where they have been putting the frit.
If you look closer, you can see the level of frantic activity at the city gates....
And imagine my surprise when I saw 3 of them struggling to carry this:
Okay, two of them are struggling and one is telling them what to do with...... that big hunk of styrofoam(!) Who knew even artist ants are plagued by unrecyclable, earth-unfriendly packing materians? However, if you look to the right, somebody is working with a much more interesting material! I think that's a bit of the Floribunda blend, it's really too pink to be Z-99...
But this is definitely Z-99, and it's a monster chunk! Speaking of monster chunks, I do still have some coarse (#3) and some chunk Z-99 left, if you feel the need to drag a little bit home to your nest...... These gals struggled mightily to drag this hunk less than two inches from the main gates of the city. I wonder what they're planning to make with it?
Tune in tomorrow ~ the Queens' Dream will be revealed!
We Got Rain!
by Jo Rebeka on 07/21/11
Yes, we had about 30 minutes of blissful soaking rain last night, and the minute it let up I ran outside to see how the Fritizens were faring..... but first I stopped at the Gangsta hill, and this is what I saw....
In addition to being totally flooded (the Gangstas had impetuously built their town on cement), there was a definite shoe print on one corner of their hill..... Not a pretty sight, for sure, but is this the end for the Gangstas? Tune in later to find out, and read about what's going on in Ant-ioch as well......
Day 7~ Ant-ioch :History of the Great City
by Jo Rebeka on 07/18/11
Well, you may or may not be aware that ants comprise some of the most ancient civilizations on the planet. I guess they are called societies because that is where one fritizen is empowered to tell others what to do....pondering the enormity of that concept for a moment before veering away....
At any rate, when I started this blog, I was puzzling over what to call these little guys (gals, as it turns out) and what to call their ant hill. Especially once those gangsta ants came along, it seemed important to give them a sense of community. Oh, who am I kidding? I've been here for about a millionth of a second compared to the collective conciousness of ants, and they clearly have a much better sense of their purpose in life than most of us mere mortals.
So it was in this properly humbled state of mind (and, while I was brushing my teeth, as it happens) that I suddenly gurgled "Amniock!" and promptly began foaming at the mouth. Luckily it was just toothpaste. After rinsing and wiping my face, I caught my own eye in the bathroom mirror with a glint of self-satisfied triumph. I had discovered the name of my little buddies' fair city. Of course, it was "Ant-ioch"!
Those of you who are not history buffs may think this is merely a pun. In fact, that is what I myself thought until I did a bit of research. Turns out the ancient city of Antioch is indeed the homeland of my industrious fritizens.
Think I am joking? Observe the image above, a map of the ancient city of Antioch, located in the deserts of Persia, a great center of learning and an important trade market. Now, look at this aerial view of Anti-och, overlaid with the map:
The wide blue line indicates the trade route (north to the Frit Depot, south to the elm seeds). The city center and ampitheatre are clearly defined, and to the East, the sacred mountain Silpios. CLEARLY, the Fritizens are reproducing their ancient homeland right in my back yard!
Okay, you are probably one of those uber-astute readers who says... "I thought they were depositing the frit on the West of the city." Well, okay, they got the map turned around backwards, but hey they are only ants, after all.
Buoyed with my thrilling discovery, I raced outside to catch a glimpse of the Fritizens. At first I thought they city was asleep, I did not see one single ant moving. Then as I gazed at the entrance to the city, I began to see little fluttering motion just inside the cave entrance. I scrunched down to try to see inside, but every time I would see a bit of movement, my camera lens was not fast enough to catch the elusive fritizenry. Yes, I squatted there on the ground trying to catch an image of our illustrious fritizens, but after 10 minutes (and innumerable clicks of the digital shutter) this was the best image I could capture:
At least you can see all the lovely colors of frit they are collecting to build their own version of Mount Silpios!
So then I returned to the Frit Depot to try to determine how much more frit they had harvested since yesterday.... 
This is the remains of the pile of Floribunda frit blend I gave them yesterday morning. I took this photo at about noon (which is most likely why they were all hiding in the nest doing whatever it is they do with the purloined frit. Well, technically it's not purloined, after all I am giving it to them). So, once again I did my Photoshop overlay trick and blocked out the remaining frit. What you see here is a representation of all the frit that is already gone. Something a little bit poignant about that, isn't there?
It's obvious that they are continuing to gather the frit, but I'm a little concerned that I may be causing a labor shortgae with my enormous gifts of frit. Are they gathering enough food, or are they are "frit-crazy" and racing off after the sudden riches being dumped at the Frit Depot while neglecting their families?
This is all making me feel a bit Margaret Mead-ish. Am I influencing the very society I am attempting to study? Is my generosity actually hindering the Fritizens from the important work of setting in stores for the winter? Or is it stimulating their community to higher aspirations? Maybe I should lay off for a few days and see what they do? Your thought and comments are very welcome!
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So, that is today's update. Hope you learned something interesting! Please do keep the comments coming, I love hearing what folks are thinking as they read. If you don't see where the comments, are, just click on the "comments" link at the end of each day's post. If you do post a comment, please be patient, I have to review your comment before it can be posted. Thanks so much for your interest!
Day 6 ~ Sunday Bloody Sunday
by Jo Rebeka on 07/17/11
Well, it's 10:00 am Sunday morning, and I don't really know if the Fritizens work on Sunday, but I thought since they had yesterday off, they might want something to do....so I took a sample size of my Floribunda frit blend (1/3 of an oz) and scattered it around the Frit Depot. I'm trying to be a little bit more scientific in my experiments, so I figured it would help to document exactly how much frit I was putting out for them.
Here's a shot of the frit scattered on the ground (10 am).
Now here is a shot of the same pile of frit at 4pm:
Hmmm, I don't know about you, but I find it very difficult to tell whether or not any frit has been picked up. I can see that the pile looks different, but I don't have a sense of what exactly has taken place..... SO, I took the 10 am photo and overlaid it with the 4 pm photo, blocking out all the image of the remaining frit (that's the black area). This should theoretically show how much they carried away during the day, right?
Aha, they picked up and carried off the frit around the edges! Well, I admit I felt a little dumb when I finally figured this out... what did I think, they were going to start in the middle of the pile? LOL!
Coincidentally, when I was taking the 4 pm photo, there was a Fritizen racing all over the pile as if trying to decide which piece to take. Finally I realized that maybe I was making him or her nervous, hanging over the frit pile with this whirring object that kept clicking faster and faster the quicker he moved. Musta felt like Big Brother was watching (or Big Sister in this case).
Alright, now it is time for a little gender clarification. Even though I have recently learned that well over 99% of all ants are female, I still cannot get myself to call them all she. I guess they just don't look that feminine to me, but there you go. I really should not be so judgmental, after all they're just wearing their little ant uniforms. No wonder they feel the need to accessorize.
So, back to the story.... I wonder why they didn't pick up more of the frit, or have I just become impatient? The sample baggie that I spread for them today is much bigger than the amounts I have been giving them before. So, thinking about that, I decided it would be interesting to see how much they had actually gathered so far, so I started playing with a photo of "Ant-ioch" and trying to find a way to make the frit pop out better visually. I applied just about every inversion and contrast filter I could think of (did I mention I'm not really all that scientific, despite my best attempts?) and this was the result:
This image is the fire ant nest... it's obviously not color accurate, but I was trying to drop out the background like I said. I think I must have managed to make some of the frit disappear in all those color filters, coz it actually looks like more when you see it normally.
It still doesn't look like all that much frit, but remember that up until this morning, I had only given them maybe a total of a tablespoon of glass, so the Floribunda I gave them this morning is probably equal to the total of the Z-99 plus the Arielle's Odyssey I gave them a couple days ago.
Well, no sense in crying over spilled frit, or regetting my perceived lack of scientific method. After all, this whole experiment was not MY idea to begin with, it was something those clever Fritizens of Ant-ioch came up with on their own!
Oh speaking of which, I'll be back tomorrow with a very interesting history lesson about the Fritizens. Enjoy, and stay tuned!
