Do you know that there is a colony of ants that lives on three continents? Jokes aside. There is a colony of Argentine ants, which spread to Europe and Japan, of course, with some help from the people. One colony extends over 6,000 km (3,700 miles) along the Mediterranean coast. The second is over 900 km (560 miles) in California, USA. The third colony is in Japan. The researchers found that these ant colonies have very similar hydrocarbons in their cuticles, and they are actually members of the same colony.
Here is the interesting part. Put ants from different colonies together and they will become aggressive. Place ants from these three different colonies, and they act like old friends. They are never aggressive towards others, and they never avoid each other. They recognize each other based on the chemical composition of their cuticles.
How many families can be associated with this? How many families are spread around the world and have such strong family ties that they will recognize and support their relatives, wherever they are? Make the circle even closer. How many nuclear families live in the same country and is it difficult to communicate with each other? It is even more tragic when the family lives in the same city and manages to create artificial boundaries to keep away from each other. Maybe we can learn from these ants and overestimate our own family ties.
Will they not contact me because I do not contact them? Don't I contact them because they will not contact me? When you point your finger at them, look at how many fingers are pointing straight towards you. Interestingly, whenever you have problems with different family members, you are the common denominator in all these difficulties. And close physical contact is not the only way to keep family ties strong. Just thinking about people with love, where they are in the world, is a step in the right direction.
Another interesting fact about ants is that they understand when we talk to them. Yes, I thought the same when I first heard it. I was told that when you have ants in your house, you can let them go by talking to them. You use your finger to draw a line where you see ants, and you just tell them that they have to go, because they are in danger if they stay. I tried it, and it really worked - in two different houses and with two different groups of ants.
And then there is an interesting fact that elephants are very afraid of bees. At first glance, you think this is probably an urban myth. It is impossible for a bee to scare an elephant or pass through the thick skin of an elephant, right? An elephant's skin is about 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick, and there is no way for a bee sting to penetrate it, right? Correctly. But the skin of an elephant is as thin as paper behind the ears, eyes, on the abdomen, chest and shoulders. And you can imagine how bee stings can damage an elephant's trunk when they cannot remove this tiny sting when it is located in the trunk of an elephant.
Bees seem to know this, and elephants have discovered this in a difficult way. Elephants have learned to stay very far from the bees. An elephant will never eat from a tree in which there is a colony of bees - they would not even come close to the tree. Elephants can smell bee hives (even empty hives) from afar and do everything to avoid hives.
What probably adds to the fear of elephants is that when the bee stains, it releases disturbing pheromones. When this happens, other bees in the area are attracted, and they continue to attack. And getting into the water to fool the bees, it helps only when you are under water. When you find yourself on the surface, the bees will smell the pheromones again and continue the attack.
Farmers in Kenya use this fear of bees to control elephants and protect their crops. Farmers in the past have lost a lot of harvest through the looting of elephants. In recent years, farmers simply lay empty beehives at a distance of several feet from each other around their fields. They found that the elephants do not even come close to the fields to confirm that the beehives are empty.
Thus, even the mighty elephant has its weak points and its fears. I wish I knew that when I had to deal with corporate elephants and others who were following me when I was emotionally vulnerable. An old dog is never too old to learn new tricks.
