Argentine Ants Invade California

Your Aug. 24 article on the workings of the ant biosphere (the invasion of the Argentine ants) was excellent, as far as it went. I fear, however, that the writer was a bit superficial in his dealings with ant culture. Recent research conducted at the southernmost tip of the Yucatan Peninsula has yielded new and startling details regarding the societal infrastructure of, for instance, the Argentine ant and the harvester ant.

Perhaps an event, recorded recently by these researchers, will clear up these muddy waters. One day, while the Argentine ants were observing their “season of joy,” a paean to good fortune, they were set upon by a particularly vicious clan of harvester ants from across the international border, giving them the more correct name of international harvester ants.

As it actually happened, the Argentine ants were peaceably cha-cha-ing across a banana leaf when struck by the harvesters. A terrible battle ensued leaving tiny antennae, legs, guitars and bongo drums strewn about in the morning dew. Fortunately, the ubiquitous UPS ants, arriving in little brown trucks, halted the carnage.

Later, the stock market ants (a particular breed that doesn’t care what happens as long as something does) arrived to clean up the mess and tend to the survivors.

I hope this clarification will add to the joys of environmentalists everywhere.

ROBERT RICHARDSON

Santa Clarita

* I don’t know if it would work with Argentine ants, but I tuck cotton balls dipped in peppermint oil about the kitchen, and nary an ant to be seen. I understand peppermint plants have the same effect. And the kitchen smells wonderful! If a stray ant happens to come indoors, I waft some peppermint oil in its general direction and you can fairly hear it squeak “Ptooey!”

Maybe farmers and those trying to help the horned lizard could plant peppermint bushes (which could turn into a nice little sideline of producing peppermint oil). After all, isn’t it more humane and safer to repel than to kill with pesticides for all of us?

And I bet we’d find that the beneficial creatures who salivate over ant pie enjoy dabbing peppermint oil behind their ears too. That’s the way things usually work. Far better to work with nature than against--we’ll always lose.

CHRISTINE WATT

Irvine