Ants in the Kitchen

Ants in the Kitchen
by Isabel

    The ants in our house used to invade the kitchen and the surrounding areas. My mom did not like this and wanted to put out poison. I started putting out dishes filled with sugar water, bread soaked in honey, grape juice, and anything I could find that I thought the ants would like. Soon we noticed that the ants stopped getting into our food. They did not need to forage anymore because I was putting food right near their nest.
    There are several things I have noticed that the ants do when they collect food: If it is a liquid, they will hold on to the lip of the dish with their back legs, and drink the sweet substance. The three armor-like plates on their abdomen swell as the ants drink. There are transparent folds of skin-like material in between the plates. (You can see this in the picture.)
     The ants that have been collecting food will feed newcomers some of whatever they have collected. I think this is so the newcomer can see the type of food she is supposed to collect. I don’t know this for sure, but it seems like the ant will go directly to the dish that contains whatever she has been given, and no other.
     There is a predator for the ants, the pallis. They are little geckos that come out at night and eat bugs. The pallis have found the spot where the ants come to get fed. You rarely see pallis beyond three inches but pallis that eat our ants are five or six inches. They are being fed ants that are large already but are made even larger by the sweet nourishment they are bringing back to the nest. The food these pallis eat are both nutritious and and filling.  Pallis eat as much as they can and the ants are so consumed with their work that they don't even realize that the pallis are there.  The pallis are able to eat quite a bit, and they get really big. 

    I have created a predator-prey situation that is quite effective in keeping the ants under control.  Some people put out poison, and this kills off the both the pests and the predators. Then the pests come back and there is nothing to keep them under control except poison which you have to put out all the time.

    The ants in our house no longer invade the kitchen, and we did not have to use the poison my mom was thinking about getting.  This is an all-win situation, even for the ants, because they get most of the food back to their nest.  This is a strategy that is better for the environment, the ants, the geckos, and us.