Friday morning, I was looking over the raised flower bed in the front yard. I planted assorted wildflowers this year and they came up "backwards," with the tallest in front. But I'm happy just to have them, and it's a nice view out the front window that way.
The bed takes a little weeding. Creepin' Charlie and what may be Lamb's Quarter's pop up, along with crabgrass, clover (I'll tolerate a little) and less-identifiable but unwanted plants. I was pulling them out and arguing with some taller examples -- they've got until Monday to prove they're actually flowers -- when I spotted a tiny, sandy, volcano-cone depression in a bare patch. There was another one a few inches away. Ant Lion dens!
Using a long piece of grass, I tickled one. Nothing. I tried the other. Success! The Ant Lion started tossing sand out as it dug frantically at the bottom of the pit, hoping to undermine whatever had stumbled in and send it tumbling within reach of its jaws.
So we've still got at least one scaled-down sarlacc in front of Roseholme Cottage. I'd hire some more if I could. They're better than any commercial ant-trap or poison bait ever made -- and more entertaining, too, unless you happen to be an ant.
Your "entertaining" brought to mind something from my college dorm days 42 years ago. One guy on my floor had a fish tank with goldfish. When his fish had babies and the tank got crowded, he would "cull the herd" and take the unlucky ones to the fish tank in the next room, occupied by pihrana. They would crack open a few beers and watch the food chain up close and personal (they were wildlife biology majors, of course).
ReplyDeleteThe difference is, the ants are unwanted pests.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child, I raised rabbits. It is difficult to tell the boy rabbits from the girl rabbits when they are young and by the time it becomes obvious, it's usually too late. My parents, who grew up during the Depression in families that kept food animals, required me to do my own culling. After a couple of generations, it made me a firm believer in spay/neuter programs and convinced me that I was too tenderhearted to keep on raising rabbits.
Roberta: Did you eat the results of the culls?
ReplyDeleteNo, Robert. I had to drown entire litters of tiny baby rabbits, using two buckets, one half full of water and the other to hold them under. And then bury them in the back yard. Being a child at the time, I made the mistake of checking too soon the first time I did it. I was horrified by the experience. It had to be done, but I resolved to avoid the necessity from then on, and to be as kind to animals as I could be. I got myself out of the rabbit business as quickly as I could.
ReplyDeleteRoberta X: Oh, my, I'm sorry you had to go through that. I was thinking you were eliminating eating-sized rabbits.
ReplyDelete