Ant Farming...  

Hi dragon54u,

That stuff about the spiders sends shivers up my spine!

Of all the creatures that I know of, noting creeps me out like spiders.

Not just any spiders, mind you, but most of them.

The big black house spiders are the worst of the lot - them and Funnel Webs, and Mouse Spiders, and Trapdoors. They all look pretty similar, and are all equally horrible. I imagine there's probably analogous monsters lurking in the deeper pits of Hell.

The ones that I don't have any problems with are Daddy Long Legs (they look just way too goofy to be scary) and Jumping Spiders. I love Jumping Spiders - those little fellows are very entertaining to watch, because they display an astounding level of intelligence for something that, by common thinking, shouldn't even be capable of any intelligent thought!

The whole top of the Jumping Spider's head is one big eye, and you can see quite clearly how they look around their surroundings and decide what they're going to do next. And what they do next is sometimes remarkable for the planning and strategy that they display.

I once had a Jumping Spider on my desk (don't know how he got there, must have hopped in from somewhere) who was intensely interested in the mouse pointer on my video monitor. You could see him moving his little head back and forth from the desk, watching the mouse pointer move around.

And then, he did what I thought was an amazing thing for a little spider.

He stopped looking at the mouse, and proceeded to look around the desktop, mostly around the monitor and it's stand.

Then, this little Jumping Spider ambled over under the monitor several feet away, climbed up onto the stand, and crawled all the way around under the monitor and up onto the video display in front.

And then he went chasing the mouse pointer all over the screen!

They are smart - really smart - for a spider, and I just think they're cute.

They're also extremely accurate when they jump. I saw one many years ago in the school playground. He fixed his attention on a fly which had landed on a blade of grass about a foot away from him. In one jump, he nabbed the fly!

You know how hard it is to catch a fly with your hand? Put it in the context of this little fellow, who is only the same size as the fly, jumping a distance of what would be equivalent to a football field for one of us, to catch the fly at the top of a big blade of grass.

Did I mention I like Jumping Spiders?

But keep the rest away from me.

I pity those poor ants - aphids or not, being eaten by a spider is a cruel way to die.

Yes, being a spider's dinner is cruel and I'm sorry I did it. If I'd listened to my Grandpa I wouldn't have done it!!!

My neighbor her in Ohio told me that the jumping spider was poisonous but I'm prone to putting that towards the general hatred of spiders. Por misunderstood things!!

And Daddy long legs are the most poisonous in the world, I've read, but their mouths are too little to effect we humans!

Hi Spookybutt,

I can relate to how you feel with ants in the larder.

It can be so frustrating, because once they get their foot in the door, it's very hard to get them back out of the place.

I've had occasional problems with tiny ants nesting in the walls or even on the carpet in plain view! In the latter case, the vacuum cleaner fixed the problem (mainly because I also sucked up the Queen, which basically doomed the colony) but when they're in the walls, the best you can hope for is to "train" them to look outdoors for their food rather than have them foraging through your house instead.

I've found that methylated spirits is a nice, clean way to "train" them. They really don't like the stuff, it kills them on contact, and also messes up their trails so more don't come in by the same route. So a spray bottle filled with metho is very handy for ant problems - and it's also cheap and relatively non-toxic.

Once they're in the food, though, that can be a bummer.

Unless one likes chocolate coated ants - but that's probably an acquired taste.

You know if I still lived in that awful fifth wheel I might try those chocolate covered ants. Get them back for eating my food.

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