Gwyneth Tefft, Entry #3, Close Call in the Forest

This week I went camping! On Monday, Kelsey, Luna (her dog) and I drove several hours to a remote place in Blodgett Forest, where we would be searching for a special kind of ant called Formica aserva, also known as the slave-making ant. This ant is a facultative social parasite, and they raid their host's nest, kidnap their pupae and bring them back to their own nest to raise as slaves. Kelsey's project is focused on this behavior and during our trip she hoped to collect as many of these ants as possible for further analysis of their chemical composition. On the first day, I helped set up a site around an aserva nest, which was located in a stump. We put out bait and set up traps around the site, hoping to catch as many ants as possible. The rest of the day we spent collecting and analyzing the different species we had caught.

A pitfall trap I made with ethanol at the bottom 

The next days were spent aggressively searching for more aserva nests, scouring the forest floor, lifting up rocks and kicking stumps. The highlight of the trip was being able to watch a raid! We were just walking through the forest aimlessly when all of a sudden I looked down and saw a massive swarm of red ants at my feet. They seemed to be moving as one big organism, in the same direction, with one goal. We followed them for hundreds of feet until they reached the host nest, where both red ants and black ants collided in a brutal attack. After battling their way through the nest's defenses, the red ants disappeared into the nest and reappeared carrying pupae. It was really incredible to watch as the red ants scurried back to their nest, each one carrying a pupae. Even Kelsey was in awe, saying that she had never seen a full raid to such an extent before. 

The red ants returning to their nest after a raid carrying pupae and being greeted by a slave ant (black ant) 

Everything was going great... until a forest fire happened. Throughout this experience, I have done many things for the first time: first time living alone, first time analyzing pheromones from ants, and first time evacuating from a forest fire! On Wednesday we had to pack everything up and drive to a motel a safe distance away from the fire. As we were driving away, I could see the massive cloud of smoke above, which was pretty crazy to witness. Despite, that slight bump in the road, I had a great time in the woods with Kelsey and learning about the slave- making ants. 

Kelsey and Luna searching for ants

Driving away from the fire!