A Bug's Life

I was lying down in my garden before and I was just watching everything.... From the birds to the trees to the rabbits to the insects and I realised how amazing nature is. I mean insects have these tiny and fragile wings that allow them to soar through the air. Their wings are able to support their body weight and allow them to travel anywhere they want with just a simple flutter of these tiny and weightless wings.

My attention was focused on one dragonfly in particular. It amazed me how it's body was supported by its tiny and fragile wings. It was able to turn so swiftly and majestically. It was fast and agile. I thought this was one of the most amazing things that nature  has done. Birds and insects have been able to do what human kind had thought was impossible for billions of years longer than we have.

Another insect that amazes me is ants. As annoying as they can be they are actually really amazing insects. Most ant species have terrible eyesight or are completely blind and yet everyday they are able to find food, shelter, water, prey, predators and after hey have done all of this they manage to find their way back to their nest! They do all this by using pheromones to communicate with each other and other insect species.

Pheromones are the scent that ants release it tell other ants where a food or water source is or to tell other insects that this is their territory. The pheromones are left in the soil, sand, dirt etc sheer there nest is. The ants all follow these trails and if something is to happen to this trail then the ants get confused. I wanted to see if this was true so I got some baby wipes and found an ant trail. I used a baby wipe to remove some of the pheromones from the path they had in the concrete. At first the ants were really confused and started moving in random directions until one of them ventured into the unknown and found the pheromone trail again. The other ants then quickly found the trail and were back on their way to where ever it was they were headed.

It amazed me that they had no clue where they were going and completely freaked out. It amazed me that they rely entirely on the scent that other ants released. It proved to me that insects are one of the most amazing of all creatures.