Things That Make You Go Hmmm... Wanna Chalk Ants?

If you have ants coming into your house, make a chalk line, but use only the white chalk; they won't cross it, it sticks to their footsies. Hmmm....

So here's the best answer I read online, "chalk is made of of calcium carbonate, a nontoxic substance. It doesn't repel ants or immediately kill them. Ants would prefer to avoid crossing chalk if possible, because the chalk particles can puncture their skin and SLOWLY kill them by dehydration. I have used regular chalk, and it hasn't been particularly effective. I tried drawing a circle around a bunch of ants. In desperation, they crossed the line anyway.

However, there are some toxic chalks sold illegally in Chinese markets. These chalks contain lead and mercury compounds (along with who knows what else). I've seen these chalks in action before. Ants die immediately on crossing the line. Most ants avoid it though. It strongly repels them."

Then again, eHow home tells you to go to the Dollar Store and buy some cheap chalk.  Go figure.

Things that make you go hmmm... 

It's Purely Animal - Issue No. 45 - The Ant Hurricane

Not sure if you've seen the viral YouTube video of ants forming some sort of "hurricane-type" circle on land.  They aimlessly go round and round following each other. It's pretty darn weird, but cool nonetheless. It's garnered nearly 2 million views thus far.

Well... you're probably wondering why these little guys are doing that?

The Discovery channel tries to explain it for you after the jump...

Megalopolis of the Ants - It is Truly a Wonder of the World

I found this video very interesting and I think you will too.  It seems to be a documentary from a few years back, but it's only 3 minutes long. 

It's amazing that a tiny creature such as the ant, can create a city under a city in just several months.

Imagine you're a researcher, and one day you come upon a rather large anthill.  Your first thought would probably be, "geez that's a huge ass hill," but not for Professor Louis Fortune.  He and a team of researchers were curious to see how hard these little ants really worked.  Well, lets just say, it took them 3 days and 10 tons of cement before they were able to stop filling these ant hills.

After the cement was left to dry for a month, the excavation process began; What they found was beyond comprehension.  

There they found subterranean highways connected to main chambers, fungus gardens and living quarters.  It was like a huge masterpiece, like an architect had gone in and done all the work.  Not only that, these ants carried 40 tons of soil to the surface in order to make this huge city.  It truly is a fascinating video. You'll enjoy it so much you'll wish there were more.