Little ants.

Little black ants, these ants I'm referring to are black, and I don't even know if they actually are ants, but from a quick, superficial look everything would point to them seeming, at least to the naked eye, like some species of ants. I haven't searched much about these insects either, but surely, like all insects, they must consist of many different species; in fact, I do know there are quite a few different families.

These ants I'm referring to visit me on certain occasions, usually when there is some coffee left behind or a cup that was used for coffee and hasn't been washed over the course of a day; these ants appear and go in search of that coffee. And it's coffee, not anything else like food scraps or sugar. How they discover it, I don't know, maybe by scent—I don't know if they have a developed sense of smell, but that's the only reason that comes to mind for their quick arrival at the coffee leftovers.

These insects send out a couple of scouts, and then they begin to march out in an orderly line toward their goal, usually a cup waiting to be washed. Do they come for the coffee? For the sweetened coffee? For the coffee with milk? They also have a preference for anything that has come into contact with boiled vegetables. They don't go for just any food scrap, only for coffee and boiled vegetables. Be that as it may, they come out of the wall; weeks and maybe months go by where these ants don't appear, and suddenly, a long line with quite a few of them emerges from who-knows-where.

The place is regularly exterminated and clean; there are no pests to fight other than passing insects, but this species of ant seems to be installed deep inside the walls—in some plumbing pipe, most likely. I've been observing them: they are smaller than common ants, I've had them in my hand and they don't sting, I'd venture to say they aren't aggressive, or so I think. I've also seen that if they spot one of their dead companions, they carry it between their... mandibles? Do they have mandibles? Well, whatever it is, I've seen them carry away any dead ant they find in their path.

In the presence of a human finger wreaking havoc on their ranks, they go crazy, lose control, break formation, and scatter. Cleaning products don't affect them; one can clean the area where they travel, and if the coffee cup is still there, these tiny insects just keep moving along their path.

Ants are carefully studied; they are animals descended from wasps and have managed to form very interesting colonies due to their organization and way of surviving. In the little reading I did about these insects, I came across the detail that workers only live for a week. It's strange with these small black ants, because months can go by without me seeing them; perhaps they reproduce using food they've stored without leaving their anthill, or perhaps, given their size, they travel long distances from some far-off place to where they emerge.

I think I found what they are commonly called: the little black ant, scientifically Monomorium minimum, but I'm not entirely sure, because looking at an enlarged image of that ant, it doesn't quite match the tiny ants I'm describing—though it's also true that I've never observed one under a microscope.

(originally published on 04-19-2007)