Leaf Cutters Ant Colony Development

Brain Development and Ants- We grow through our experiences. It could be a matter of depth or width, as in experience some about many, or experience much about one. Usually we live with a balance of both, and the brain continues to make new connections while reinforcing older ones and some connections are lost. So, if you want a healthy brain, don't do drugs, children.
Really, decent nutrition, physical exercise and learning new things are a good start.

So, what about the ants? We have learned much. At the moment, we are starting a new study titled:
Does a cabbage bait infused with an organic mystery solution affect leaf cutter colony size or behavior?
Purpose: To find possible methods of reducing foliar damage caused by leaf cutter ants.
Background: When we moved into this house in July 2009, a leaf cutter ant colony existed in the pasture. At that point, their mound was about the size and shape of an upside down salad bowl, while underground tunnels likely traveled a few meters and colony size consisted of several thousand ants. Today, the primary mound covers an area the size of a two car garage, there are several smaller mounds and entry holes throughout the pasture and our yard, tunnels and chambers, well, if someone wants to have fun with the math, let me know, colony size is likely in the several millions.
Leaf cutter ants make a living by cutting pieces of leaves and using them to grow a fungus in their underground chambers. The fungus is then harvested and eaten by the colony's members.
The leafcutters, are very interesting to observe, however they do cause a considerable amount of damage to foliage and can colonize new areas through reproduction. Gardens and reforestation projects are susceptible to considerable damage and their earth moving can affect building foundations. Currently, we do not know of natural mechanisms, such as predators or weather events, for controlling their populations at this site. Common local methods for their eradication is the burning of diesel fuel in their tunnels (really fun for humans) or use of a fungicide that targets their food source (not as exciting as the former).
We have tried the fungicide, and the ants initially show curiosity by taking a few pellets, then after a few applications, they move the pellets off to the side of their trail.
Our Test: We have received an organic cabbage bait that is designed to kill the ants, thus reducing the size or even eliminating a colony. Each morning this week, I spread spoonfuls of the cabbage substance on several trails. On most mornings, within ten minutes they hauled a few pieces toward their tunnels. When I returned home in the late afternoons, 90% of the cabbage was gone. So, are they bringing all of the cabbage to their nests? (Bias, says yes, absolutely) Are other animals eating the cabbage? (bias, says, no, absolutely not) But ethical and true science is objective, biases removed. It has been difficult to assess because I have other responsibilities - like making my own living. So, without continual observation, I really don't know what is happening to all of the cabbage. Have I noticed any change in behavior or numbers of ants? No.

More research, and thus brain development in the future! Time to apply more of the cabbage.

Signed M

Maybe my enjoyment here has something to do with brain development! Obviously, many things here in CR are new or at least different, thus forcing the mind to store the new and reinterpret the old. Lets take ants for example. In Chicago, we could identify a few types of ants around the yard. You might be familiar with the masses of ants that occasionally swarm on the driveway or over a crack on the sidewalk. Looks like mom spilled the ground coffee as she was getting out of the car and now they're dancing type of thing. I would often tell the boys that is was an ant party, until we closely observed one time to discover, to take words from David Bowie, "this ain't no disco, this ain't no foolin' around" but an all out war. The ants were engaged in a fierce battle, attacking with jaws and ripping apart opponents. We figured that two colonies had gotten a little close to each other on nature's dance floor, someone bumped, then a bottle flew and all you no what broke loose. Further observations that summer supported our ants at war theory.

Those earlier stop and smell the coffee discoveries may have helped us developed a greater awareness ants ( Class: Order Hymenoptera, Family Formicidae). Our fascination has grown further here due to the manners in which they become part of our lives.
We navigate around or trip over the leafcutter mounds walking up the pasture
We devise ways to keep ants from the baked goods that cool on the kitchen counter.
We wait patiently for the next invasion of marauding army ants to clean the house and respectfully walk over their columns on the trails.
We admired the way one type would enter our front door at sunset, quickly locate fallen dinner scraps, and then quietly carry their booty out without disturbing a soul.

I think we have found about ten species around the home, some more conspicuous or mildly irritating than others. I say only 'mildly irritating' because we have never had an experience when they have attacked our food in mass numbers or caused fear of losing life or limb, yet they initially have caused some mental discomfort upon first encounters. Once you get to know the types and their patterns, they are quite predictable. Heck, I even found Sally struck with awe as she patiently watched the patterns and trail of some ants in the kitchen.

OK< john wants me to look at a toucanet.

M

Kicking & Screaming....Really!

A week filled with emotions, tears and yes, this dreadful cough and cold is still plaguing me...Relief already...please! Some of you may be clammering for a post about another awesome hike or a wonderful 'ah-hah moment' where Mike and I have looked at each other and said..."wow, this is why we are here!", but I'm afraid I need to use this post selfishly to scribe my thoughts in order to put this week into perspective. It is now 10:30 p.m. Sunday night, kids down, Mike snuggled up under the down comforter behind me in bed, and me, just enjoying the peace and quiet, watching the flickering of the lights on and off due to a passing storm and listening to the droplets of rain as the water finds the leaks in the rook and spill onto our concrete floor.

Good News: Mike had a GREAT first week and is thoroughly enjoying his experience, focusing on what he loves most....Science. He is also really excited to work with a very talented teacher, our friend, Tedi, assisting her in the 3rd and 4th grade as well. What a difference a year makes.

Not so Good News...but things are looking up: Both boys have been sick, snotty noses, cough, congestion, you name it...we've got it. Despite them not being 100%, we ventured off to school on Tuesday for the first day. School for them has changed quite drastically through the eyes of a 4 year old. The school has brought on another Kinder teacher who comes from the other private school in the zone, The Cloud Forest School, aka La Creativa. She will be a great edition to the team and will surely be a help as the Kinder program has gone back to only one morning program opposed to the afternoon and morning sessions they offered last year. What this means, is that the boys now can have 20 kids in the class...a big change from last year's 7 or so in the afternoon program. In order to accommodate the larger class size, they demolished a wall in an adjoining classroom, sort of a temporary build out, until the new Kinder space is ready (ETA...who knows...that's my other job to figure out). They've also constructed a covered porch and little nook where kids can hang their rain gear, boots, umbrellas, etc., so they aren't constantly sweeping and mopping the entryway of the classroom.

(First Day of School - I think Michael forgot to discard his dental floss prior to pic...sorry folks!)

Mid-week stroll to school - John engrossed in the cow-jam unfolding down the hill, holding up parents trying to get their kids to school before the 8 a.m. bell...good luck!


Tuesday, Michael, who probably should have stayed home, decided he wanted to try to make it to school. He made the decision not to stay and I didn't push it as he looked up at me with swollen eyes and somewhat of a snotty nose. Wednesday, both in school, no problem. Thursday, well, quite a different story...all things were a GO, dad was up ahead with John and nearly there, Michael pulls a "I don't feel well, I don't want to go" on me. After reasoning with him and starting to go soft, I saw my Guardian Angel appear through the woods, Veronica! I thought to myself....'just what the doctor ordered'. I must have had that look of "now, what do I do?...pick him up, kicking and screaming the rest of the way..."? "Of course" she remarked, and that I did. I am so past embarrassment and well, the Schaefer boys are 'well-known' at the school, so I plodded along through the parking lot best I could shielding my face from swinging fists. I spied Miss Melody out by the play-yard, she knew right away that I needed to hand over the 'goods' and walk away. In parting, I told her to 'take cover' and briskly walked away. Moira, a good friend and co-mother put her arm around me, offering comfort and a shoulder to whimper on. Being sick, with little reserves, it actually felt good to let go! (Yes Auntie Beth, even the Ice Princess can squeeze our a tear or two every decade or so)!. There were a hand-full of mothers in the parking lot waiting for me to impart their war stories of trying to get their kids off to school in hopes of lifting my spirits. I knew, before I even hit the trail and got through the parking lot that Michael probably had a smile on his face and had settled into his routine...I come to find out when I returned at noon, that was precisely the case.

When I returned home that morning, I had four hours of 'no-kid' time. Everyone gave me strict instructions to go home and rest in hopes of getting well...those of you that know me, 'ain't gonna happen', so I opened a paint can and proceeded to paint my bathroom and bedroom with the left over paint from the boy's room.

Fast Forward to Friday: No problem getting the kids to school, however Michael is walking with Mike up ahead until he can earn back the 'right' to walk with his mom and treat her nicely. I think he's learned his lesson....we'll see!

So what am I doing with my free time in the morning: Painting and a little work on the new building project. I am enjoying the peace and quiet and the ability to have a good chunk of time to be productive. I am missing my running and hope to make that part of my morning routine as soon as I get healthy enough to pound the pavement. Another run to Dr. Johnny in Cerro Plano is probably a prudent thing to do tomorrow - this crud is hanging around way too long, I'm sure the daily downpours are not helping. You can pretty much set your watch by the rain, around noon the sky opens up and down comes the water. Well needed, but you better have sturdy rain boots! (Sunday Update: got another round of Claritin D from the Doctor on Saturday, and another script for antibiotics in case I get worse, but hoping I wont' need it.)

Gaudy has been helping me with the kids in the afternoon until I feel stronger. She continues to be a delight and we plan on going down to San Luis on Sunday to share lunch with them and to celebrate her son's 6th birthday. (Sunday night Update: Had a fabulous time at the birthday party. Love San Luis, so tranquil and peaceful, off the beaten path of the more touristy Santa Elena and Monteverde. Raul gave Mike and I a great tour of their farm which has many beautiful vistas and affords a spectacular view of the Gulf of Nicoya on a clear day. The kids enjoyed the cake and being 'loved on'. Liliana, who works at the Pulperia at the end of our street shared a cab with us...Gaudy works at the store Saturdays to provide Liliana a day of rest; we enjoyed her company as well.




So, speaking of painting...About two weeks ago, I came to the point in the book I am reading about Spirited Kids where some kids (my John) can't sleep, not that they won't sleep, they just can't. So I decided to try and make the boys room a little bit more 'kid-comfortable'. The book recommended making a little nest, or cozy spot for their bed...equate it to the 'chickadee in its nest' theory. That was all I needed to get my creative juices flowing. Off to Santa Elena to purchase paint and a new mattress to replace the foam pad John has been sleeping on for the past year. Surely, a new coat of paint, new mattress and make-shift canopy (complements of a clothes line, four clothes pins and an old curtain) would do the trick. The boys helped me with the painting, I spent a good hour cleaning the blue and yellow paint off the concrete floor, but they had a blast and that's all the counts. I am still waiting for the night where John doesn't snuggle in between me and Mike...wouldn't be so bad if he didn't spend 3 hours tossing and turning and throwing the covers off us...what's that saying about Patience...? Not wanting the leftover paint to go to waste, I slathered on the blue paint in our master bedroom/bath and used the leftover yellow in the kitchen. A new 'contact paper' backsplash purchased at the Ferreteria and I barely recognize the joint. Tomorrow afternoon, I'll take one of the boys into town after school to buy another color for the living room/dining room. What a change, cleaner, more colorful and masks the moldy smell. Mike ripped up the contact paper in the bathroom closet and I can't even begin to explain the stench and the sheer blackness of the closet shelf once the paper was ripped off. Just say...it took a lot of bleach and muscle to clean it...







Ant Traps - THANK YOU Elizabeth for the Borax and ant traps from the States. Mike and I amused ourselves last night about 9 pm finding just the perfect spot for the trap - once strategically placed, we sat in amazement as the critters climbed in and then transported the poison (looks like your regular household Borax, sweetened somehow to entice the ants) back to their colony. I reached for a flashlight and continued to watch as the trail of ants grew thicker on my newly painted kitchen wall.


Memorial Service - Mike and I had the honor of attending a memorial service for a member of the community who had settled here with her family about 7 years ago. The service was in the Meeting Room at the School and as you can imagine, well attended. The youngest daughter sat in the middle of the room on the floor at a small table and invited some of her friends to join her, lighting candles as the rain poured down outside. The family surrounded her on all sides - family, friends and community members shared their memories of this remarkable woman. Her middle daughter sang a Lullabye she wrote to close out the service. Her final wish was carried out with having her ashes brought back home, here to the Green Mountain.

Lots of emotions this past week, smiles, belly laughs, tears, anxiety, frustration and relief...I guess this is just life - ebbing and flowing like so many other things.

P.S. - I am getting a little more quick on reaching for the camera when a cool insect photo opp presents itself...yellow caterpillar (and I even remembered to have a human part in the pic to show scale:) and I found a poor scorpion at the bottom of my washer last week as I transfered the clothes from the washer to the spinner...NICE! Can't take credit for the agooti (sp) sharing our compost pile with a stray cat...the cat looks pretty fierce to me!





Peace..
Signed: S

Loving Life In Monteverde

"Oh my gosh, larva, larva!" I continued cutting vegetables for the Tico beef soup. We see plenty of larva around here. Michael continued, "I squeezed the fly and out came larva!" Now, he had my attention. Sally chimes in, "Oh gross, what. . . , take that outside .. . wash your hands really really well, oh they're all over the place!" I put the knife down on the counter and hurried to a new biological surprise. Michael and John were playing around with a unique looking fly trapped on the window pane. Apparently, this one was carrying her hatched brood first class in the cabin. Upon some external pressure from the fingers of a 4 year old, this diptera's (scientific classification: Kingdom: animalia; Phylum: arthropoda; class: insect; Order: Diptera) exoskeleton split open to reveal about a dozen minute, wiggly larva (maggots). Upon seeing the light of day, some larva had ventured out immediately onto little fingers and the window pane, while some stayed within the warm confines of their mother's reproductive tract. I was surprised to discover that this type of fly, I don't know the family, produced eggs that hatched inside the mother rather than eggs that hatch externally as in the case of house flies. (note the mating houseflies courtesy of wikipedia) Unlike the bloated grains of rice type maggots found in smelly garbage cans on a hot august day in Chicago, these little larva appeared quite innocent and undeserving of a premature separation from there mother. But so goes life on this Costa Rica Dia de la Madre, their mother had a gaping hole in her side and her future looked quite bleak. Sally was not too happy about the whole thing, so Michael threw the fly outside, we washed our hands really really well, and I went back to cutting vegetables.

"Oh gross, there's ants all over the windowsill, did you guys just leave the larva there?" Yes, we did. I murmured something about mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom in our house, grabbed the camera and joined the boys to watch round two of the larva drama. Within minutes, dozens of our little black ants had located their next meal, hoisted the doomed wigglers into the air and were hauling them into a crack in the wood. I imagined a fateful game of 'your larva feed my larva.'

It was an amazing scene, not gross nor gruesome, but real, natural, a wonderful story of the complexities of life and death, survival and competition, reproduction and predation. Of course the human involvement cannot be overlooked, after all this did take place in our house. Just these few minutes of play and curiosity on our part will lead to rich discussions and vivid memories for some time to come. The great thing about living here, is that these stories happen all the time. This is but one of many vivid displays of the natural world we've experienced today. Pics not in particular order: Star of larva story broken in two w/baby, ants and booty, today's long hike to a stream, red mushroom, more insects, and a spider visiting me right now. Note: it is bigger than Antarctica.

5 Things I Observed Today

Observation #1: 

Chicago is getting a blast of record breaking cold air tonight with temperatures forecasted to dip into the 20’s. Temperatures here in Monteverde have remained close to 20˚ since July. 20˚ Celsius, that is. Attached to this blog is a map of current humidity levels in Central America. Note that Costa Rica is at 100% humidity, but still quite comfortable here. It just means that getting a campfire started and keeping it hot enough to roast marshmallows is a huge ordeal and that laundry hangs for three days before it is finally not too wet to wear.

Observation #2:

We were walking down the dirt road to a friend’s house when we heard either a “Hello” or an “Hola.” It sounded like an older person, maybe it was Martha, we were near her house. We heard it again, where is that person, who is greeting us? It is often difficult to see into yards because of the dense vegetation everywhere. I responded back with a “Hello” but it took a moment for the person to call back. This time I could not make it out. Was that a “Hello” “Hola” or someone in trouble? The boys could not locate anyone either. Sally chimed in, “I think it’s a bird, a parrot, come on, lets keep moving.” A parrot? Possible? Now I was really intrigued and the boys were ever so confused, they did not know how to respond. Michael was speechless, which is rare these days. Well, we did keep moving, but fortunately on the way back, we once again encountered that scratchy “Hola.” There she was, a beautiful large green parrot sitting on the telephone line. Sure enough, “Hola” she bellowed. If you could see the boys faces! “The bird talked!!!” She did not speak again, but we will surely return for more small talk.    

 

Observation #3:

Instead of howler monkeys waking us in the morning, they are foraging elsewhere, it is the regular drop of a guyaba fruit onto our roof. The racquetball size fruits are ripening and several times a day one hits right above the bedroom with a ‘bonk’ and then reminding me of my bowling years, rumbles down our slanted roof and crashes into the gutter. The boys, accustomed to the noise, yell, “Strike!” with each crash.   

 

Observation #4:

The colony of ants that visit our front porch each evening looking for treats the children left behind had a special treat tonight when they marched into our dining room. Dinner was a little messy and our brown six legged friends found plenty of chip crumbs on the floor. During storytime, Michael was especially excited to spy one little fella carrying a chip chunk up the side of a chair. Watching the ant summit the wooden peak, Michael gleefully exclaimed, “I’m on top of the world!” I thought, ‘why sweep when the ants could have the place cleaned by morning?’ I don’t mind the ants, but organic goodies left on the floor, counter or sink invite other critters ever so common in warm locals. So I swept, cleaned the dishes and wiped the counters.

 

Observation #5:

Getting the dinner ready tonight, I noticed that the flame level under the rice cooker appeared rather low. Unsuccessful at raising the flame, I thought, Uh oh, were running out of gas. Fortunately, the lame flame lasted a few minutes, just enough to boil the water and thanks to the speedy pressure cooker, we enjoyed plates of tuna con soggy rice. Now the task is to find someone who can haul the empty propane tank for a refill. The tank stands about 5ft tall and will probably weigh over 200 lbs when full. Until then, our internal fires will be fueled with cold cereal, sandwiches, and any larva that make it through the strainer. 

Signed M.