Well I took the dogs out for their nature call, under their favorite tree the hackberry. And low and behold an army of ants was marching up and down the tree. Their prediciting rain, the weather forecasters, and guess so now are the ants. We must be on the verge of a gully washer or something.
Ants will move aphids to higher ground, when bad weather is impending, so as to proctect them. Which is really truly odd because I thought they were doing the aphids in, but not so, just the opposite.
What I wish I had now as a cherry picker so I could get up to the crotch in the tree, a mere 20+ feet in the air, and spy on the aphids. I wanna know what color they are, I didn't get close enough to the ants, due to being attached to two dogs, to find out. But apparently aphids, if they are the right colors, will yeild dye colors. Carol Lee, from Sheep Shed Studios, does a lot of dyeing with aphids, and mushrooms.
I'll have to see what I can come up with. The 40 foot ladder is too heavy to handle by myself, hopefully it won't be raining when hubby gets home this afternoon.
Well I"m off to dye fibers and fill orders.
2 comments:
I read somewhere that ants milk aphids or something like that. So they were moving their dairy farm!
I always look forward to reading your blog, Kimberley - it's really interesting.
I knew that ants "milk" their aphids, but I didn't realize that they would move them like that before a bad storm. That was such an interesting observation! Thanks!
Post a Comment