Anthill Art

[Can't Know]

They say that "art imitates life." In this case, life becomes art.

How someone had the idea to do this just amazes me.

And the result is equally amazing.

And I'm not too torn up about the loss of fire-ant lives in the process.

The Result of Filling a Fire Ant Colony with Molten Aluminium

[elchivito]

Those are beautiful. I've seen some here done on red ant nests, which go quite deep with longer runs between the larger egg and food storage areas. They take a lot more digging.

[kerry]

I saw that earlier today and loved it.

[kerry]

It reminded me of this:

Giant Ant Hill Excavated - YouTube

[link]

The first one is a thing of beauty but lacks the marks of artist workmanship. This kind of thing is more a work of theft than a work of art, imo, and is not unlike a stuffed deer head hanging on someone’s wall, except, of course the part where the ant hill it doesn’t hang on a wall.

The giant ant hill video shows that when scaled up, the design differs a lot and can teach a something about efficient subterranean dwellings and growing areas.

There is something inherently charming to the eye and sensibility about organic structures. I previously thought that small ant hills were generally much bigger but had no idea how giant a giant ant hill is.

Impressive.

[Idle]

A lot of fire ants are dead because of this, so I don't care what it looks like to others. I consider it a thing of beauty.

If you have seen as many acres ruined by fire ants as I have you would feel the same way. I hope this catches on and becomes totally out of control.

[Dubyagee]

Ive seen this done with pewter. Some of them are huge.

[Botnst]

Where is PITA on this heinous act?!!

[SwampYankee]

Oh, the ant children!

I have seen similar castings before. I'm amazed at how long the molten media stays in liquid form and how far it will go.

[t walgamuth]

It makes me wonder as an Architect if the ants do something to stabilize the soil. With so much area hollowed out how does it maintain its form? It looks like it would collapse.

[link]

Originally Posted by Idle

A lot of fire ants are dead because of this, so I don't care what it looks like to others. I consider it a thing of beauty.

If you have seen as many acres ruined by fire ants as I have you would feel the same way. I hope this catches on and becomes totally out of control.

We have carpenter ants. I remember the first year I encountered them. I was sitting outside in a chair by a table on the porch. It was the first warm and sunny day in months. I saw what I first thought was about an inch long fly land, and then seconds later its wings fell off. Oddest thing I ever saw.

Then another landed and did the same thing. Then another, and another, and another, and another, and another. Then I noticed the area was swarming with them and they all landed and then their wings fell off. I’ve never seen locust but first thought that’s what it was. Frightening in a way. I definately wouldn’t want to do a walk or bike ride through a swarm of these things. This was a dozen years ago, and I had to do some searching to find out what they were. Mr G. was a mere child at the time.

I don’t know if these critters create ant hills but there are probably billions of the little monsters in my neighborhood. They help sell a lot of diazinon based stuff at the closest Home Despot, about 40 miles away. Thy are also why I bought some tyvek outfits and full face respirator to apply said diazinon.

I wouldn’t mind pouring molten something in their ant hills, if that is where the grow up. They are definitely an enemy of a wood home.

[SwampYankee]

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

It makes me wonder as an Architect if the ants do something to stabilize the soil. With so much area hollowed out how does it maintain its form? It looks like it would collapse.

The untapped wonders of ant spit and excrement!

[Botnst]

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

It makes me wonder as an Architect if the ants do something to stabilize the soil. With so much area hollowed out how does it maintain its form? It looks like it would collapse.

Saliva (and to a lesser extent, ant poop) is used to gum the soil particles together. Before you try it at home, it is highly scale-dependent.

[link]

It took me a while to remember the term, but this, uh genre, of artistic expression is referred to as momento mori. There are a few translations but the one closest is probably moment of death.

The genre arguably started with the building of the pyramids, which were transported and built in part, from the blood and flesh of countless slave labor, and then over time the genre found widespread use in western art with depections of the death of JC, along with divine judgment, etc., and has continued on from there and evidently now extends for some to the idea of ant colonies which are entombed in a variety of media.