Ants and Dog Poop
By: Sivaprem S
Tags: Insects, Human Behavior, Ecosystem, Climate Change, Problem Solving

There were some ants in the house. Nameera called our apartment maintenance as they usually have pesticides. A guy came with a small tube of translucent jelly and applied at a few points. He said the ants will “take the bait back to their place and that should do it”. Their entire colony exterminated. I thought he was only going to stop them from bothering my wife. I did not think he was going after their species.

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There is this little ant that has separated from its group, climbed my desk and the coffee mug on top of it and is contemplating whether to go into the mug or not. What has lead this ant here, will it go to the bottom or does it have enough information to leave and come back with an army? It piqued my curiosity so I did a quick internet search. The first result ‘Ant — Wikipedia’ says “Ants are eusocial insects… Ants appear in the fossil record across the globe in considerable diversity during the latest Early Cretaceous (150 million years ago)”

The second result ‘Ant Control: Types, Facts, Get Rid of Ants’ says, “Ants carry bacteria on their bodies, which spreads when they crawl in pantries and across countertops” well we are all made up of bacteria. I just made a bacteria culture — curd — for the well being of the billions of bacteria in my stomach. Are the bacteria on the ants harmful? The website preview continues “Only a few species are known to transmit diseases, but finding any type of ant in pantry goods or inside the home is an unpleasant experience that creates nuisances.” Oh nuisance, absolutely.

While the lonely ant on my coffee mug can make for a moment of amusement, as soon as I see a few congregating under my table, I know we have a problem. A little more internet digging reveals that ants are probably here because heavy recent rains must have flooded their colonies. Closing off their entry points, and ensuring they don’t find any food to come back to is often enough to get rid of them from the house. In India, we are used to drawing insect control chalk lines around the house to prevent ants from entering. The idea of getting rid of their entire colony seemed a little excessive. Not because I like ants but because insects are useful.

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Consider the dung beetle for instance. Africa is populated by thousands of different kinds of dung beetle. They feed on and scatter animal droppings making it easy for the soil to recapture the nutrients, and keeping the forest floor clean. One scientist observed 4,000 dung beetles on a fresh pile of elephant scat within 15 minutes after it hit the ground. Some kinds make neat balls and roll away balls twice their size. Thanks to prodigious beetle elephants do not have to worry about signs such as “Dog poop spreads contagious diseases, clean up after your dog”. Americans gather dog poop in plastic bags and bury them in piles where a lack of air supply leads to partial decomposition and harmful gases.

Dung Beetles

Can you use dung beetles to clear dog poop or are we stuck with collecting them in plastic bags? As proof of human and dung beetle ingenuity, someone has already tried this. “The dung beetles worked well from the very first day we released them into the backyard from their shipping box — we didn’t have to train them to do what comes naturally. They stuck around the backyard since that was where they found all of the dog poo. They never bothered the dogs, and the dogs seemed to be uninterested in them.”

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Insects are a major source of nuisance to humans and controlling them in our living environment should always take priority. If you have ever been bitten by a mosquito you would want to eradicate their entire species. And you wouldn’t be wrong in doing that. However, Insects also break down complex organic matter, aerate the soil, help in pollination, seed dispersal, serve as food for birds, and are connected to the ecosystem in myriad ways. Human thinking and our approach to problems are usually linear. Our methods of hacking away at natural systems will have far-reaching consequences. Hidden dog poop and dead ants might one day come back to haunt us.