Distracted by Ants
Posted on August 20, 2007
Filed Under Worldview |
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander, no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. Proverbs 6: 6-8
“What in the world are you doing?”
My wife had been watching me as I was outside, bent over, intently watching the ground, taking a few steps now and then. I’m sure it looked very strange to her.
“Tracking ants!” I replied. She shook her head and disappeared inside.
This had all started several days ago as I was doing some minor maintenance on our new camping trailer. I wrote earlier that I had purchased it hoping to take my dad on a camping trip. His stroke put all of that on hold.
As I was walking around the back of the trailer, something caught my eye. Traveling 
along the power cord was a very large black ant. I watched him (or her…who knows?) as he sped along and then noticed another big black ant traveling at the same speed, but in the opposite direction. I stopped to watch what was setting up to be a major collision. They literally “bumped” into each other, each bouncing back almost an inch. Then, without hesitation, they came together again, this time stopping to say “hello” (I don’t know how else to describe it—they put their heads together and appeared to “shake hands” with their antennae.) After this little formality, they immediately went on their merry way. As I watched them, I became aware that they were not alone. There were more ants behind these two—some coming and some going (although at this point, I didn’t know “coming” from “going”). Well, if you know me, I couldn’t just walk away from this. I spent several hours over the next four or five days trying to track down what was going on.
At first I was worried that they were following the power cord up into the camper. However, as I trailed one ant, he jumped off the cord just before it elevated up into the side of the trailer. I waited another minute or so for another ant to come along and he, too, got off of the cord at the same place and headed east across our rock-bed driveway. About the same time I saw a couple of ants coming toward the cord, working their way through the rocks until they hopped up onto the cord at the same place the others had gotten off.
Interesting. How do they know where to get off and where to get on? And where are they going? And why?
My next concern was that, at the other end, they were following the electrical cord into the house. So naturally, I started tracking them to find out. What I found relieved me, but also piqued my curiosity even more. They were all jumping off the power cord about ten feet from the house and onto the garden hose.
By now, I had forgotten about my task with the trailer and was hot on the mystery of the ants. Obviously, they had discovered that the garden hose and the power cord were much better highways than fighting their way through rocks and pine needles. But how did the first ant find that out and how did the others know about it? And, I still wondered, how did they know how to get on and off at the same place?
Well, some internet research led me to understand what many of you may already know. Ants have the ability to lay down a “scent” trail (pheromones) with their abdomen. When an ant finds a source of food, it hurries home, laying down this trail much like Hansel and Gretel’s bread crumbs. It then communicates the “find” to the other ants and they follow the trail to the store. Amazing, isn’t it? Consider all of the separate systems here: production of the scent, an apparatus on the abdomen to lay the scent down, the ability to detect the scent, the intelligence to know what that scent means, the antennae to communicate to other ants, the intelligent “messages” that are passed through those antennae, etc.
Almost looks like it was designed!
But, I was still curious about where they were going and what the source of food was, if indeed that is what the trail led to.
Tell you tomorrow what I found.
Comments
6 Responses to “Distracted by Ants”
Leave a Reply
Comments are moderated and will not appear on deltackett.com until they've been approved. While we are eager to facilitate conversation by publishing most comments, we may withhold one from time to time if we deem it offensive, vulgar, overly personal, cynical, disrespectful, irrelevant, redundant or unnecessarily contentious. While we encourage you not to make others' misspellings and grammatical mistakes an issue of debate, please do your best to double-check your spelling, use correct capitalization, and use proper grammar.
Dr. Del Tackett is president of the Focus on the Family Institute and Senior Vice President to Focus on the Family. He is also the architect and chief spokesperson for Focus on the Family's The Truth Project--a nationwide initiative designed to bring the Christian worldview to the body of Christ.
Subscribe in a reader
© 2008 Focus on the Family. All rights reserved.
Again you bring back memories for me.
Just a few months back, I was wandering a grassy field at my church and came across a large ant hill. These were the red ants, a little stinky, but all busily working to some widely known (to them, and them alone) objective. The team work was so incredible, that like you, I stood in awe of it all and could not break away. One would lift an end of a twig and start dragging it backwards up the ant hill and 5 others would completely redirect their efforts to help it get the twig to where it was taking it. Afterward, the 6 of them would move in unison to the next ant struggling to get something up that hill. If only humans would work with such obvious unity, can you imagine all we could accomplish?
God Bless You Del,
I sure enjoy this blog and it’s connection with you.
Sincerely,
Tom S
God’s Creation is absolutely fascinating! I had an encounter with ants this week as well. I have a concrete driveway and our home is “in the woods” with lots of critters around, including ants. I noticed hundreds of ants moving across the driveway, when there are usually just a few. Like you said in your post, ants seem to move with a purpose and are usually carrying things, food or larvae. Well this multitude of ants was carrying their eggs in one direction and they must have unburdened themselves in the new nest and then returned to the old nest to get more eggs. I tried to trace the old nest and the new nest but got lost in the underbrush in that attempt. Talk about purpose! Those ants would not be deterred. Many questions; Which ant decides that they move? How do they decide the new nest? Why?
What an amazing experience to observe.
Del-
Thank you for reminding me that even the smallest parts of His creation “Declares the Glory of God!” I’m looking forward to reading the second part of the story. You have me anticipating it much like I did the next Tour each week as I made my way through The Truth Project. Keep loving Him!
I agree God’s Creation is absolutely fascinating! Del’s blog reminded me of a recent article in the LA Times about ground squirrels verses the snake, BTW which can be found on http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12477-squirrels-wield-a-hot-secret-weapon.html
The article begins: “It’s Californian ground squirrel versus rattlesnake in a potentially lethal showdown. But the squirrel has a secret weapon that until now has remained invisible to the human eye.
The ground squirrel heats up its tail then waves it in the snake’s face - a form of harassment that confuses the rattler, which has an infrared sensing organ for detecting small mammals.”
The article goes on to say that scientist now believe other animals may have this similar weaponry to ward off potential predators…
Here’s yet even more evidence of God’s “purposeful design” and that “the cosmos is the handiwork of an intelligent, rational mind”.
Thank you Del for helping us see and know the Truth!
Many Blessings to you and your family!
Len K
this takes me back to my younger years i lived in the country parts of Virginia,
i always love watching the movements of Ants even then i thought the really had it all togather
nice story
Gertie
Curious to know what the source of food was for the ants. I have a special interest in ants because we’ve been invaded by them in my Mother’s kitchen since May of this year. I am a “student” of the the Truth Project in our church in Pueblo, CO. I am almost finished with the second journey of “tours” and I keep learning more each time. Like the others who write to you, I am so blessed by your teaching. Keep writing and sharing.
In Christ,
Karolyn