Can a tiny insect take down a towering pine tree? This week someone sent me an example of the remarkable capabilities of even the smallest animals, often hidden from us, but sometimes revealed by the forces of nature. What caught the eye of the hiker in the Hamlin Conservation Area (thanks LH!) was the huge pile of wood chips at the base of a tree, and the expertly excavated holes in the remains of what used to be a majestic tree.
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| Photos by Linda Hammill |
The first impression is that the pileated woodpeckers sure did a lot of work on that tree, and that's partially true, but the real work was performed over many years by a much smaller creature:
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| Black Carpenter Ant (Camponotus pennsylvanicus) |
It's hard to believe such small animals can carve out these huge cavities, but when you look closely at the business end of black carpenter ant you start to understand.
When thousands of these insects work together, tiny bites add up. It's important to note that carpenter ants do not eat wood, they only excavate wood to make nests and tunnels to travel between multiple nests and food sources, often leaving tell-tale signs of sawdust behind. They prefer soft, moist wood which is easier to chew up, and explains why they are partial to houses with wet eaves and damp basements and garages.
Carpenter ants rarely infest a healthy tree, but if damaged, with the protective bark removed and water penetrating and softening the wood, a tree becomes prime real estate for an ant colony. Entering through a hidden location under the bark or under a front door step, they can carve out the vast interior of a tree or a 2 x 4 with no visible evidence from the outside. But they do make noise as they chew and woodpeckers can hear them inside a tree, and sometimes feel their vibrations. Once they find a vein of ants in a tree a woodpecker will return again and again to consume the ants, larvae, and eggs within.
So what do ants eat? They are primarily carnivores, and their most important food source is other insects, especially dead ones. They are great scavengers, cleaning up our forests, searching mostly at night for dead insects and other animal parts that they either consume where they find them or bring them back to the nest to feed to others in the colony. Ants are pretty much at the bottom of the food chain, in turn feeding many others up the chain, including humans in some societies, even here in America in prior days. It has been reported that Maine lumbermen considered them delicacies, but also ate them to prevent scurvy. [Ref: Nature-Study Part I, Charles Lincoln Edwards, 1924, Hesperian Press, Los Angeles, pg/ 208]
Earlier in the winter I came across a good example of the inner workings of an ant colony when a tree weakened by its residents met its demise in a winter gale.
It's not evident how the ants found their way in but it's clear they excavated a large fraction of the interior of the tree, weakening it until it split right up the middle in the storm. The inside shows how they carve out their channels like holes in Swiss cheese.
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| Those large round holes are where the pileated woodpecker cut access to the ants. Note daylight visible through the top-most hole. |
With warm weather on its way (hopefully) watch for these large ants - not the small "sugar" ants - near or in your house, and especially for the huge winged ants that are looking to create a new colony.
Much more fun to watch for as warm weather approaches are the loons, and they will be here as soon as each lake opens up enough for them to land. The Loon Preservation Committee is working with a group called Journey North at the University of Wisconsin this year to help gain knowledge of loon migration, and they are looking for citizen scientists to help collect data. The LPC is hosting a virtual presentation which you can join to learn how to participate in the study. To learn more, visit the Loon Preservation Committee's YouTube channel (youtube.com/looncenter) at 7 PM on Wednesday, April 6th.
The loons may show up soon on Wicwas, though the weather was cooler this week so the lake made only slow progress towards ice out, and in fact, there was a snowmobile out on the lake on Wednesday, bravely (foolishly?) launching at the boat ramp and skimming across open areas of water. The northern part of the lake is now open from the outlet quite a ways up towards the inlet at Dolloff Brook. But the bird feeders have been retired for the year - has anyone seen any bears yet?
We'll miss seeing our feathered friends up close.
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| A white-breasted nuthatch takes its last seed. |
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