Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Wednesday Weird

So, I'm starting a new theme on the blog - Wednesday Weird.

I totally love all the crazy, weird, stuff that happens in the world that can't be explained, or can, but is still weird, or fun/crazy animal facts. I could read about that stuff ALL DAY. Serious.

So I've decided to devote a day on my blog to all the fun and crazy stuff out there. Will this happen every Wednesday? Probably. But I certainly reserve the right to switch it up for whatever reason, including blogfests.

Speaking of which, have you signed up for the Teenage Heartthrob Blogfest yet?  I want to see the celebs you crushed on as a teen!

All right! So, onto the first edition of Wednesday Weird!!


What do you think is the largest ant colony in the world? Something as large as a house? A football field?
WRONG!

It turns out an Argentine ant colony is EVERYWHERE.



Seriously. They live in a colony that that spans 4 continents. Yes. You read that right. The small, individual colonies are considered interconnected to all the others because the ants won't fight each other. And we all know if there's one things ants do well, it's go to war.

That and carry relatively heavy things.

Anyway, the global-mega-colony is made up of over 22 million ant hills each with upwards of 10,000 member each.  Math tells us that over 200 billion ants.

Yeah. So there you have it.

Next time you see some kids burning an ant hill, maybe warn them away. Their 200 billion relatives across THE WORLD may decide one day to get some payback.

.

16 comments:

Jessica Bell said...

Oh wow you're gonna have some major fun digging up weird and wonderful facts! I love this kind of stuff too!

Maria Zannini said...

Ref; Weird Wednesay

LOL. What took you so long? This is a perfect complement to your blog and not too bad a metaphor for you. :P

Kimberlee Turley said...

Someone once told me if I took a shovel of two neighboring ant colonies and dumped it on the other colony, they would fight to the death and I'd get rid of the ant problem in my lawn.

Didn't work.

Now I see I was just saving them the trouble of walking across the driveway to visit their old friends.

Matthew MacNish said...

Have you heard of Pando? A Clonal tree, it is considered the world's largest organism, and also the oldest living thing on earth, if you consider the root system.

You should do a post on it.

Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_%28tree%29

Austin Gorton said...

So is it Weird Wednesday or Werid Wednesday? ;)

Ants are crazy. That whole proportionate strength thing freaks me out.

Talli Roland said...

Oh... creepy. Crawly. Ha! Seriously, I love the thought of Weird Wednesdays. I'm going to like this feature.

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

That's a huge ant colony.

Luanne G. Smith said...

Someone said Weird Wednesday, and here I am. :P

That is an incredible amount of ants. Gah! I'm probably going to dream about this now.

TL Conway said...

I love weird crap like this--I have a feeling I'm going to like these strange Wed posts. I always like the weird genetic-related science news. Maybe that because I work in human genetics...

And who knew all the ants were related?! (almost) Weird!

Shelley Sly said...

I love these kinds of posts -- so interesting! The thought of those many ants really creep me out, though. I mean, they're not as bad as super huge bugs, but when you've had an ant problem in your kitchen, you learn to really hate them.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Which four continents? I need to know these things...

Joan Crawford said...

That's awesome - I love random facts! Have you seen this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA37cb10WMU

I've heard the ants do this until they die... which is freaky and sad.

Kittie Howard said...

Yipes! That's a lot of ants. But what a fun way to find out. Great idea, Sarah!

Anne Ahiers said...

Joan Crawford- that was creepy as hell

Lola Sharp said...

But the ant can't move a rubber tree plant.

Southpaw said...

That's both freaky and fascinating.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...