ANTS and DEATH

Ants understand death. This is what I know:

Tiffany's favorite food is hot dogs. She could eat them all day every day if I let her. The only problem is that she can never finish the entire hot dog. She will have one bit left over and then throw it on the floor to let me know that she is done. Being a little lazy I left the piece of hot dog that landed under her high chair on the floor knowing that I would get it the next time I swept the floor. (The hot dog fell on Sunday and I planned on sweeping on Monday)

The next morning I found the hot dog covered in many tiny ants and they were taking little pieces at a time to their hole in the ground. The ant covered hot dog was under Tiffany's high chair and I was feeding her breakfast, so I picked up the hot dog and threw it outside. (Later when I searched for it, I couldn't find it so I wonder if they took it in their home). If an ant bites me I swell up (golf ball size lumps) so my determination to kill all the ants directly under the hairchair is completely justified. There was still a large number of ants in a line coming from the wall towards what use to be hot dog, but I didn't kill those. I watched as those ants would discover the large pile of dead ants on the floor, run around in circles for a while and then start back towards the hole they came in. Some ants picked up a few pieces of the other food left on the floor before they left through the hole.

After breakfast, Blake and I headed to Home Despot to buy a new dishwasher (that's another story if you're interested). When I got home ALL of the ants were gone. Well, maybe not all. I think I swept up two or three later that day. I now understand that ants understand death. One might think that they left because the food was gone, but there was a large amount of food still on my kitchen floor (I really should sweep more than once a week) for them to choose from and they left it alone and got their little butts to safety.