{"id":13757,"date":"2012-05-26T02:58:35","date_gmt":"2012-05-26T01:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/?p=13757"},"modified":"2012-05-27T00:36:12","modified_gmt":"2012-05-26T23:36:12","slug":"grease-ants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/2012\/05\/26\/grease-ants\/","title":{"rendered":"Grease Ants"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Grease<\/a>
Grease Ants (photo:Tim Jones)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meet the Grease Ants (Solenopsis molesta).\u00a0 Smallest ants I’ve ever seen. One or two millimetres long, they look like specks of dust at first glance, but on closer inspection are perfectly formed little ants.\u00a0 This bunch is a minor infestation running around the kitchen surface where I’m staying in California – or rather an ex-infestation, as I’m afraid we had to zap them.\u00a0 Native to most parts of the U.S.A. – for sure we don’t have anything like this in Surrey – they’re also known as thief ants for their behaviour of stealing food from other ant colonies.\u00a0 They also like grease.\u00a0 The UK 20p piece is for size comparison – it’s about the size of a U.S. nickel.<\/p>\n

Naturally, there’s also a Grease Ant Movie.\u00a0 Shot in low light with the iPad camera, so excuse the less than National Geographic production values:
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