Today was the start of ant mating season here in the North woods of Minnesota and if any of you are wondering what exactly ant mating is check out this excerpt from Wikipedia's article on Ants
"During the short breeding period, the reproductives, excluding the colony queen, are carried outside where other colonies of similar species are doing the same. Then, all the winged breeding ants take flight. Mating occurs in flight and the males die shortly afterwards."
I would just like to point out that in the insect world the male only seems to have one purpose in his short life that being to mate with the usually larger female and then promptly die, leaving the female to do all the work while the male just turns back into the carbon he came from single parenting at it's best I guess.
Anyway, so I am riding my bike around Lake Bemidji today at an average speed of 19 MPH/30 KPH minding my own business and enjoying the last of the warm summer days and I have mating ants crashing into me like asteroids hitting the moon before I know it I have just rode right into the middle of ant sex. Now I can only guess what walking in on other people having sex is like and my guess would be awkward and disgusting (depend on who is it and what not) but at least they aren't flying around slamming into you getting into your mouth, helmet, sunglasses and at one point left ear, I think. When I got home an hour later I wasn't covered in ants but I had a few dead male drones in my leg hair and female queen on my right shoe. Hopefully tomorrow I won't have to relive the experience of slamming into flying ant sex at 19 MPH then again it's a lot better then slamming into fly human sex at 19 MPH which would involve a plane of some sorts and I would assume is illegal in most states of the union minus Texas and maybe Missouri.
"During the short breeding period, the reproductives, excluding the colony queen, are carried outside where other colonies of similar species are doing the same. Then, all the winged breeding ants take flight. Mating occurs in flight and the males die shortly afterwards."
I would just like to point out that in the insect world the male only seems to have one purpose in his short life that being to mate with the usually larger female and then promptly die, leaving the female to do all the work while the male just turns back into the carbon he came from single parenting at it's best I guess.
Anyway, so I am riding my bike around Lake Bemidji today at an average speed of 19 MPH/30 KPH minding my own business and enjoying the last of the warm summer days and I have mating ants crashing into me like asteroids hitting the moon before I know it I have just rode right into the middle of ant sex. Now I can only guess what walking in on other people having sex is like and my guess would be awkward and disgusting (depend on who is it and what not) but at least they aren't flying around slamming into you getting into your mouth, helmet, sunglasses and at one point left ear, I think. When I got home an hour later I wasn't covered in ants but I had a few dead male drones in my leg hair and female queen on my right shoe. Hopefully tomorrow I won't have to relive the experience of slamming into flying ant sex at 19 MPH then again it's a lot better then slamming into fly human sex at 19 MPH which would involve a plane of some sorts and I would assume is illegal in most states of the union minus Texas and maybe Missouri.
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