Green Bottomed Ants

Sounds like a track from ‘Queen’ and as the creature whose numbers make them essential in the antipodian food-chains, they do make the world go round – and they are mostly girls – and they have a Queen - and they sing Bohemian Rhapsody.

Facts:- They make their nests in trees by sticking living leaves together with silk. A mature colony of green tree ants can hold as many as 100,000 to 500,000 workers and may span as many as 12 trees and contain as many as 150 nests. Green ant colonies have one queen and a colony can live for up to eight years.

When I took this picture they were just of intellectual interest. It is now more personal.

As with all rural Australian settlements the things people most fear are cyclones and forest fire. Trees sited close to the house will kill you, by crashing down or exploding in flames. Russell is trying to keep top sides of his fire break. He comes out most evenings to chain-saw down a few bigger trees – Rachel rushes out to save them. I get out at dawn most mornings, when it is slightly cooler, to chop down the smaller scrub with longhandled cutters. The Cocky Apple Tree (fruit beloved of Cockatoos) is home to many green ant nests. At the first nip of the cutter instantaneous communication passes between them. They swarm out of their nests and cast themselves off into space like crazed  armies of green things high on formic acid, singing ‘Killer Queen’, in hopes of landing on the attacker. They are always successful! Those on the ground swarm up any trouser leg they can catch hold of and fleetly find every crack in clothing. When they reach bare skin they stand on their heads to bear down on the bite and hold on until squashed or picked off. The only comfort is that the pain rarely lasts  beyond attachment.

Again, it makes sense wearing cover-all clothing and in particular, checking for firm knicker elastic.