A Formidable Foe

As I was picking tomatoes yesterday in our potager, I heard music playing from outside our gîte, so I wandered over to listen. Our current holiday guest was strumming a guitar as he sat on the patio. I asked him how things were going and he reported that they were very happy there, save for an invasion of tiny ants. He had laid pièges (ant traps) but to no avail. Whilst I could sympathise, I could do little more, for we too are suffering an invasion. Leave a crumb on the floor, or worse still, food on the bench, and a tiny ant scout will find it and leave a chemical trail. Very soon the place will be invaded by hundreds more of her fellow creatures, each one no bigger than a speck of dust. I have since done some research. In America, similar ants are called sugar ants. In France, they are likely to be of the Tapinoma species, which are being driven indoors in search of moisture. That would explain why we have never had such an invasion before. Until now, we have always enjoyed some summer rain. This year is very different.

Ants are fascinating to watch. Should one find something of interest, very soon others are gathering around to help recover it. I am continually impressed by their ability to coordinate forces. Even one single ant can drag and carry far more than its own weight. Who needs other forms of entertainment?

Of course, ants form just a tiny part of our insect world. Where once I would have stamped on a spider in horror, now I can only admire them as they go about their tasks industrously weaving and reweaving their webs. The noise of cicadas is fading now, and very soon they will be gone until new ones emerge from the ground next summer. But crickets are around in greater number now, as are the grasshoppers, and various kinds of black beetles with their shiny shells. Insects will never fail to fascinate, but be aware, they are diminishing in number year by year. To kill any single native insect would seem to me to be a crime. As for those pesky invaders that seem to be multiplying , such as the punaises (stink bugs) that arrive in the autumn, therein lies a dilemma. Let us hope that as more and more predators discover them, they too will come to form part of the ecological balance.