Ant trails. They quite often have an intriguing story if you can follow them. A file may trace itself to a dead animal, environmental disturbance, or something else which is of importance to them and of interest to a naturalist. If you cannot trace back to the end of the line, it is engrossing to think about what they may be up to so busily, so hurriedly. During the monsoon months, you will find ants to be decent foretellers of rain. Especially in the countryside, where there is a vast and unhindered sky for them to sample above. They sense it – these scurrying barometers. Whether its humidity, the temperature or just their own formicine acumen to scry clouds. Those whose nests are at risk of being submerged, grab their eggs, and white larvae, and start shifting house to higher ground. Or they may gather as masses on tree trunks and walls and wait till the spell passes. Showers almost surely descend after such behavior. Yes, on some occasions ants decide to move only after their
April 2014 I was the dorm parent for the first batch of tenth graders at Pathashaala (a residential school near Chennai). They were two of them and they stayed back in school during the summer vacations to write their board exams. We were good friends most of the time, but it was a daily challenge to meet their youthful storminess, with few other adults around. The washrooms in the dormitory were serene spaces during the day. But since school was on vacation there were barely any people staying on campus. And these spaces became the playhouses of Bandicoot Rats during the nights. When problem turned crisis, we had half a dozen rat traps bought and set up in strategic places in the dormitory. The rats were lured like thieves to gold, to the smelly coconut pieces and masala vadas we used as baits. This way we quickly managed to do away with most of the rats partying in the washrooms. In fact, we caught all of them, except one. And this last one was a mysterious creature. We n