Ants live together in a colony and there are lots of
different types of ants, but this specific colony lived in
'n huge red ant hill close to Polokwane (a Province in
South Africa).
They were called 'rysmiere' or 'white ants' and they
worked and build many years to get their ant hill
sticking out of the ground for more than one meter.
The area here is very dry and arid and the worker ants had to walk very very far
to get the building material.
They were all very proud of the work they did and the beautiful 'home' they
build for themselves and their king and queen.
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White ants, different from termites that only have a queen, have a king and
queen. The pair lies very deep down in the nest and they are served by the
workers.
The workers have soft bodies, they are white and without color pigment. They
also do not have eyes. Their job is to build the ant hill, bring food, serve the
king and queen and clean their 'toilet' and also clean the soldiers - they really
work hard and all the time. Up and down, always busy.
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With the exception of the king and queen the soldiers are the most
important. They have big heads and strong pinchers which they use to protect
the colony. There are a small group of soldiers called the 'nasuti' and they also
defend the colony but they do not have pinchers. They use 'chemical
weapons'. Their mouths are too small to bite, but they have a gland at the front
of their head that excretes a chemical substance that works on the nervous
system of the prey and causes them to be lame so that they can be dragged back
to the nest.
One day while the ants were working up a storm, an elephant came past and
stepped on the ant hill - the beautiful home they have worked years on. One big
foot, breaking it all down.....
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Many of the ants, even the king died and the queen was very sad. She called all
the soldiers together and commanded them to take revenge on this imposter that
destroyed her castle and killed her husband.
Unfortunately most of the 'nasuti' also died, so there were only a few soldiers
left which were joined by the workers and together they planned their revenge.
They started walking behind each other, following the trail of the elephant.
The old elephant did not know about anything and just kept walking.
The angry army of ants caught up quickly with the elephant, since he was
walking so slowly and spending a lot of time standing around.
While the elephant were still standing there, the ants started running up his leg
and his trunk. Andrew Ant was in the front and he ran all the way up to the
elephant's head.
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Just then, a branch from the tree fell on his head and he made a loud groaning
sound.
The ants did not see the branch falling and they could only see Andrew Ant
sitting on the elephant's neck and they all shouted. "You go Andrew. Strangle
him. Strangle him!!!"