September 20, 2022
The ants go marching quadrillion by quadrillion.
"A new estimate for the total number of ants burrowing and buzzing on Earth comes to a whopping total of nearly 20 quadrillion individuals. That staggering sum — 20,000,000,000,000,000, or 20,000 trillion — reveals ants’ astonishing ubiquity even as scientists grow concerned a possible mass die off of insects could upend ecosystems.
In a paper released Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a group of scientists from the University of Hong Kong analyzed 489 studies and concluded that the total mass of ants on Earth weighs in at about 12 megatons of dry carbon, a standard way of measuring animals’ biomass.
Put another way: If all the ants were plucked from the ground and put on a scale, they would outweigh all the wild birds and mammals put together. For every person, there are about 2.5 million ants."
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We have these fire ants in Texas and they are a bitch. My wife has an allergy to their bites and needs epinephrine on hand. I just get the usual swelling and pustules. I have two on my hands right now from weeding Sunday morning.
All Lives Matter or all lives are matter? Carbon sequestration. Chocolate covered. Dave Matthews Band. Magnifying glass.
semi related topic, that gilbar has been wondering about,
Do Vegans eat Honey? Seems like they shouldn't, just like milk and eggs
Interesting Ann. If I'd had to guess, my totally uninformed guess would have been trillions not quadrillion.
Sometimes it seems like most of them are in my house and yard.
I wonder how wef's demand that we switch to eating bugs will affect ants
For those wondering, I passed tropical storm Fiona just fine. Lots of rain and high breezes, some flooding and mudslides a couple days of no juice.
Otherwise just another day in paradise. Just a little more so than normal. After passing through direct hits by 6 cat2-5 hurricanes, a tropical storm is nothing.
John stop fascism vote republican Henry
I wish the article went into the method they would use to estimate the decline in ants considering how much the evidence for number of ants is based on extrapolation and the data from Asia and Africa (which probably rival the Amazon in ant populations) is lacking.
The last known broad extinction of insects was the Permian-triassic (end-Permian) extinction event, also known as the 'great dying'. 90% of species didn't make it, and it is the only known extinction event where an entire order was wiped out.
But yeah, sure, that's what's going on right now. There's beach front property for sale in Martha's Vineyard 'scientists'.
Giant Anthill Excavated
Whatever the estimates are of ant numbers, they are not enough. They are everywhere, en masse, doing whatever it is they do to keep their colonies going.
My life includes an ongoing war with fire ants here in Florida. I've got the scars on my ankles and feet to prove it. I see a raised nest, I use various things to destroy the colony, but not really. I simply win the battle. The survivors move over, move a few yards, or many yards away and show up a few days later, doing what they do. It's nice when I can see them. Tougher when the nest is buried in the St. Augustine- or what we call 'grass' here- and you're watching your dog across the yard when you suddenly feel bites, then burning covering your ankles and moving into your shoes. You look down and see your lower leg covered in the nasty little bastards. You kick off your shoes, run your hands down both legs and your feet to get them off, then scurry out of the area, leaving your shoes behind like some kind of war trophy for the ants. Another trip to DSW coming up.
For me, when they attack it's a slight burn, then days and days of mad itching. The bites turn into small red blisters and postules that eventually leave a mark, a scar that stays for months. Most sane people would go through that once then call their exterminator do carry on the war. I take it as a personal attack and react accordingly.
It's another beautiful day out here today. But I'm staring at the yard now, knowing I'll be going out there soon to do battle again. Sure, it might seem like a hopeless cause, but then, I'm a Lions fan. I have lost the ability to judge hopelessness.
20 Trillion ants on planet earth. Impressive.
The United States national debt is $30 Trillion and growing.
Winning!!!
Key word: Estimate.
Be an ant scientist! Make a guess! Publish!
Do Vegans eat Honey?
Nope. At least, not the one I know. Sample size of 1, I know.
That vegan does like maple syrup.
Temujin, this may amuse you. And give you some ideas for fighting the ants.
gilbar: My idiot vegan college professor son doesn't eat honey or anything else containing honey. Non omnivores can shampoo my crotch.
THEM
Darwin found that worms bring 15 tons of earth per acre to the surface each year so that they contribute as soil aerators. He also found that worms can't hear but they do respond to music as vibrations by shrinking back in their burrows. He and his son Horace placed a bowl of earth filled with worms on "a" grand piano - doubtless his own - to discover, verify and record this result. What did Mrs. Darwin think? Unrecorded. And what would worms think if they were in a bowl of earth on stage during a rave? Never been tried but perhaps the worms would turn and come out and refuse to keep turning over earth till raves were halted. Or perhaps not. Mrs. Darwin never stopped Darwin and his son Horace. The two also found that worms do respond to perfume. I can only hope that that bowl of worms was not on Mrs. Darwin's dressing table.
The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits which recorded these insights was a ground-breaking work when published by Darwin in 1881. It led to many other studies showing how unappreciated small fellow organisms such as ants and worms are part of our lives. But this study of ants seems to be missing insights of the sort Darwin provided, such as how ants respond to music when you place them in bowl of earth on a grand piano in your living room, or (updating here) on different-sized speakers playing indigenous music or punk rock. Do they run underground and hide or run out through the room seeking the adversary?
https://www.earthwormwatch.org/blogs/darwins-worms
MadisonMan said...Key word: Estimate.
Be an ant scientist! Make a guess! Publish!
There's a bit more to it than that. This is one of the many ways the global warming hoax has undermined people's faith in science. Estimates are not guesses...unless you need a global warming angle to make your otherwise pointless "study" publishable. In which case, guess away!
Teeing us up for ant crackers along with the grasshopper in The Great Reset.
Naturally they will always be serving waygu beef and Australian lobster tails at Davos.
I am always amazed at how well organized and hard working ants are.
Tim Maguire- that video was unbelievable! And pretty cool.
I've actually used boiling water as one of my methods to get rid of them. I can only use it when the nest is not under and within one of my landscape plants- which is something they love to do. Probably for the cover and shade. But when they are 'freestanding' nests- like those in the grass- I'll use boiling water. Then I'll wait 20 minutes and go back to check it out. Typically those who survived the first round of boiling water have been scrambling to bring the eggs up to the surface. The Queen has probably already left, searching with her soldiers for a new site. It's a wild mass evacuation. I then do round 2 of boiling water and that usually ends this battle. It's like Antietam every week here. Mass casualties on both sides, survivors moving away, knowing there will be another battle coming soon.
Hurry winter. It doesn't freeze here. Not even close. But it seems like the worst of fire ant season is in the summer months.
If you spent one dollar per second, it would take you 32,000 years to spend $1,000,000,000,000.
Tim,
Re the global warming angle, Brandon tried to blame climate change for this weekend's power outage.
Not 75 years of corruption at the govt owned power authority.
Not having the former Ukrainian finance minister in charge of Puerto Ricos finances.
Climate change.
John stop fascism vote republican Henry
Yes, but their carbon footprint must be a lot smaller than ours.
The only thing I remember from Senior School English classes is the short story...
Leiningen Versus the Ants
Leiningen, the owner of a plantation in the Brazilian rainforest, is warned by the district commissioner that a swarm of ferocious and organised soldier ants is approaching and that he must flee. Unlike his neighbours, Leiningen is not about to give up years of hard work and planning to "an act of God", as he believes in the superiority of the human brain and has already made preparations. He convinces his workers to stay and fight with him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiningen_Versus_the_Ants
How many millions of bacteria on and in each ant?
As long as they don't come into my house we'll get along fine.
Is this the beginning of the 'Eat ants, they're good for you' indoctrination?
'Do Vegans eat Honey?'
I'm convinced veganism is 20 for percent health/ethics reasons and 80 percent virtue-signaling...
My idiot vegan college professor son doesn't eat honey or anything else containing honey. Non omnivores can shampoo my crotch.
I've never done it, but I confess to an unworthy urge to sneak non-vegan (or GMO) ingredients into vegan (or "organic") dishes.
As to the ants: among my personal 2.5 million, half of them ended up crawling up my hand and arm the other night as I was picking up a plate, helping friends clean up in the dark after a backyard barbecue. Fortunately they were not the evil kind and all I had to do was brush them off, but it was... disconcerting.
“If all the ants were plucked from the ground and put on a scale, they would outweigh all the wild birds and mammas put together.”
Not the humans though—not even close. 12 megatons of dry carbon in ants is only about 3.4 pounds per person.
estimate - definition
VERB
1) roughly calculate or judge the value, number, quantity, or extent of: "the aim is to estimate the effects of macroeconomic policy on the economy"
synonyms:
roughly calculate · approximate · make an estimate of · guess
NOUN
1) an approximate calculation or judgment of the value, number, quantity, or extent of something: "at a rough estimate, our staff is recycling a quarter of the paper used"
synonyms:
rough calculation · approximation · estimation ·
Notes:
Some people believe estimates are not guesses - they are. Any resulting numeric answer that depends on data not present is a guess. It is a more accurate guess than pulling a number out of one's ass, but it's still a guess.
To verify this, simply look at the number of estimates of "the effects of macroeconomic policy on the economy" which have proven to be wildly incorrect.
Sometimes ya just gotta go with it…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm9drIwmmU4
Ant hills and dandelions are the only things keeping my front yard together.
"... scientists grow concerned a possible mass die off of insects ..."
Trump's fault, of course.
Insect dieoff? LOL! They were here before us, and will be here long after us.
I haven't come across fire ants in Southern California--yet. But every four or five years or so our kitchen will get invaded by ants and it's a two or three week battle to get rid of them. It does seem then that there must be 2.5 million ants in our house! You have to get rid of them using stuff that won't harm the then resident dog.
Will they vote democrat?
“ 20 Trillion ants on planet earth. Impressive.”
It’s 20,000 trillion.
That's a lot.
Since most people cannot really comprehend anything above what they can count on their hands, what are they trying to say?
(a huge number is only good when compared to something else - indeed, the need to divide it by the number of people, still leaves an incomprehensible number).
And scientists are always concerned about something (if gravity stops working we are going to be in trouble!)
"even as scientists grow concerned a possible mass die off of insects could upend ecosystems."
Well, it's either that, or massive disrupting overpopulation. Nobody's getting research grants to demonstrate that everything will be okay, you know.
Big O, that definition is sorely lacking. An estimate is sometimes colloquially described as an educated guess. The key there, what makes it an estimate and not merely a guess is "educated."
Absent the modifier, it's not an accurate description of what happened. Estimate is not a synonym for guess.
"For every person, there are about 2.5 million ants."
Plenty of crunchy fried ants or ant stew for everyone!
"...nearly 20 quadrillion individuals..."
This is in no wise accurate, they're just using that false accuracy to tell us it's a really, really, really big number.
No one really knows, and I could get to the same number of ants by simple reasoning. But then I wouldn't get published in a prestigious journal for my pseudo-scientific gobbledygook.
Probably five times that estimate. I have some that are ultra small, smaller than tiny, and the little black shits sting like hell when they bite. Can barely see them. A handful would probably be five hundred or more. They are that small.
For those wondering, I passed tropical storm Fiona just fine. Lots of rain and high breezes, some flooding and mudslides a couple days of no juice.
@John Henry, yes, I’ve been wondering. Good.
For those wondering, I passed tropical storm Fiona just fine. Lots of rain and high breezes, some flooding and mudslides a couple days of no juice.
@John Henry, yes, I’ve been wondering. Good.
all democrat voters
Great news, John Henry!
John Henry: "For those wondering, I passed tropical storm Fiona just fine. Lots of rain and high breezes, some flooding and mudslides a couple days of no juice."
That must have played havoc with your colon. Its always wise to keep extra paper products within easy to grab distance during such "storms".
we have the blessing of fire ants n Alabama. One day I was at hardware/gardening center when I saw an odd item. It was a rectangular, aluminum plate with a pyramidal protrusion on the bottom of each corner. In the center of the plate a 3 foot +- tube stretched upwards ending in a Tee with padded handles.
I had to ask. The clerk explained it was a fire ant killer.
You straddle the mound and pile drive it repeatedly. It is claimed to kill the queen and most others by crushing them.
I asked if only Yankees bought them.
He just smiled.
Years ago when I visited Pike's Peak, I was sitting down trying to breathe when I noticed some busy little ants going into their den. Right then is when I knew what really caused mountains to erode. Ants!
An average human body has 7000 trillion trillion atoms.
Or maybe a human body has 7000 quadrillion quadrillion atoms. Anyway it's a lot.
I stand by what I posted earlier today aboout Fiona for northeastern Puerto Rico where I live. But at that time I had no internet (I do now) and just going by observation and what I saw on my phone. It
Now I've seen news reports and YouTube video, I realize that for the south and western part of the island it was much worse. Serious flooding and flood damage. A fair amount of wind damage.
I think I was guilty of downplaying a serious event. Apologies.
My colon is recovering fine, Drago. But thanks for your concern!
John Stop fascism, vote republican Henry
Ants are pretty fascinating creatures. Edmund Wilson has written several books on them as have others. Somewhere in my Kindle pile I have a fascinating book from the 30s(?) on african white ants whcih I think are more like termites than ants but am unclear on the difference.
Several have mentioned teensy-weensy ants and we get them here, too, No harm but quite the nuisance. We also get fire ants but I seem to be able to control them with some granules I get at HoDe. Best way to get rid of ant colonies is molten aluminum. It also gives you some really cool sculpture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WLirCtwBZs
When I was in Costa Rica a few years ago we went on a rain forest/zip line tour. We saw some HUGE ants, the size of a large cockroach.
John Stop fascism, vote republican.
Maybe they are edible.
John Henry: "My colon is recovering fine, Drago. But thanks for your concern!"
We only kid the ones we love and, all is well, so a bit of humor never hurts.
When I was living in NYC in the '60's (law school), it was well known that the size of the cockroaches in your apartment was a function of what floor you were on: The higher the floor the smaller the roaches. Beyond some level (can't remember which), you had no roaches (except an occasional few that rode up on the elevator). Can I get a grant now? Or does that only work with ants?
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