But We Can’t Get Rid of the Ants

Vincent R. Landi receivwd a Ph.D. from MIT in physical chemistry. He worked in research and development in industry until retirement. Since then he has been writing essays and short stories, often of a humorous bent, but also some poems that cry out in protest and recently had a humorous essay published in Clover. Vincent and his wife Susan moved from the Northeast to be near their daughter’s family, which includes two great grandkids. He’d like to see a world handed down intact to those and all other grandkids, a world in which there is reverence for fellow human beings and for the environment.

One day solar cells became better than leaves
at sucking energy from the sun, and
we needed trees no longer, but kept them, of course.

They’re nice to look at, and the shade is good,
however, they do take up a lot of space,
into which we could put more solar cells.

So we keep fewer trees these days.
That’s okay, though, since we can shape solar cells
into interesting sculptures that also provide shade.

You see we need the energy to
change carbon dioxide back to carbon,
which we compress into black rocks and bury in coal mines.

Because, no denying, we do have a hotter planet
and the weather has become downright troublesome,
but we believe the climate is under better control.

Can’t be sure though; takes a while to tell.
On the whole, yes, I’d say nature is under better control;
however, we just can’t get rid of the ants!

We try hard, but they’ve become more immune to insecticides,
and it’s getting harder to find new poisons for them,
so we’re trying other means as well,

Like bacteria to infect them, and other insects to prey on them,
but it doesn’t work very well. They just keep increasing,
And their nests keep getting harder to find, and root out.

In fact, they’ve taken lately to putting nests under the solar panels.
And while they don’t harm the panels, their presence there is worrisome,
and rooting them out would disrupt the energy supply.

And we really need the energy. Making cement is energy intensive,
and we use a lot of cement now in building sea walls,
what with the rising oceans, and all the violent storms.

Plus we need the energy for air conditioning,
since it has become so hot. But, I think, as I already said,
we may be getting the climate under better control.

Yet for all we accomplish, we just can’t get rid of the ants.
They’re everywhere and are a super nuisance.
In fact it’s causing increasing anxiety.

Many homeowners have obtained anteaters, for that reason,
And we also use giant anteaters on golf courses,
And they, as a consequence, are no longer an endangered species.

The ants themselves are becoming bigger,
except for the small ones which are getting smaller,
and there are a lot of middle sized ants too,

What’s more, there are more types of ants of all sorts,
including flying ants, which have become real pests.
And they all are developing thicker shells, and more painful bites.

……………….

We are making great advances on the health front.
at least with regards to prosthetic devices,
a positive outcome of our conventional wars.

The greatest advances relate to brain function.
We can now implant silicon computer chips
and join them to brain and nerve tissue.

The chips greatly increase control of artificial limbs.
They improve hearing, vision and heart function,
sometimes without implanted batteries.

Interesting, they seem to work better when
the diet includes silicon in digestible form,
adding new and interesting elements to our cuisine.

Yes, we steadily increase control over our health,
although there have been setbacks on infectious diseases,
and serious new allergic reactions to ant bites.

Encouraging health developments, true,
but we could use better control over the climate,
as well as, of course, in getting rid of the ants.

The tropics have now become very hot,
With constant storms making some areas unlivable.
Unlivable for people, that is, so parts of the tropics are abandoned;

Except in extreme hot spots, however, the ants seem to thrive.
What’s more, there’s a steady stream of new species moving from the tropics
without, it seems, disturbing other insects and wildlife.

These tropical ants have greater social organization,
and studies show they now use arches, pointy arches, in ant hills
making them stronger; and in shapes some fools call beautiful.

We’ve long known ants raise fungus to help digest leaves;
now, these new ants may be cultivating bacteria as well.
It must help them better digest their foods.

However, this may also be why their bites easily get infected.
So, clearly, we need to get this situation under control,
yet we just can’t seem to get rid of the ants.

Curiously, some new ant types
make pure carbon from carbon dioxide,
which they deposit deep in their ant hills.

It’s not well understood why or how.
It’s somewhat amusing, since we are doing that too,
but, it may help cool the planet, and every bit helps.

We need all the energy we can get, and still use fossil fuels,
not coal, of course. Even here the ants are troublesome,
since their infestations are greatest around oil fields.

They swarm all over equipment, and their secretions
tend to corrode metal, causing moving parts to seize.
Our best efforts can’t get rid of these pesky ants.

Some alarmists say the ants are trying to get rid of us,
but how can that be? We’ve always coexisted
with these small, and insignificant creatures.

Still they are reaching a point where we need to control them.
They’re annoying, loathsome and even dangerous.
We try very hard, but still we can’t seem to get rid of the ants.