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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 2021)
Wednesday, August 4, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Tales from a Sisters Naturalist by Jim Anderson Invasion of the ants Well, our move to Eugene has opened up a new chal- lenge for us 4 an invasion of tiny ants. And, oh boy, have they moved in! There are nearly a thou- sand species of ants in North America. They range in size from tiny specks to as big as a AAA battery. And they9re ubiquitous 4 they9re everywhere! My wife, Sue, is having more fun trying to outsmart them. Just as challenging as keeping squirrels out of the bird feeder. First she used peppermint oil along their route to block their scent trail. <That should do it,= she said, having confidence that the strong peppermint oil would send them back home. Nope, that didn9t work. They just went around it. We had completely underesti- mated the reasoning ability of the ant9s tiny brain. I can hear them talking it over: <Hey guys, just hold your noses and we can go around it. Our scouts have discov- ered a lot of rich goodies in this place, and it9ll be well worth the extra work to har- vest it.= And they kept coming. Pretty soon we could make out a marching ant trail of them coming and going on the kitchen counter. They found a tiny hole in the framing around the kitchen window and lo-and-behold they started arriving by the hundreds. A continuous black line of them was coming from the edge of the window, across the kitchen counter, up on the white wall under the microwave, to the other side of the kitchen, down that wall and up the side of the tall, plastic garbage can. I have a hunch the ants thought they9d died and gone to heaven. And of course Sue started using more oil to mask the ant9s foraging trail. Yeah, you guessed it, we are not into using pesti- cides, poisons, or harmful chemicals! It stalled them, and we thought we had won the battle. But, ants being ants, they soon found a new way to get to the food source by coming and going through a tiny hole in the ceiling where it meets the kitchen wall. We wondered how many thou- sands more were inside the walls waiting to hear from their friends. We moved the garbage can to the garage and, again, we thought we had solved the ant problem. Hah! Two days passed since we discovered that our home had become an ant restau- rant. Moving the big food source seemed an obvious solution to the invasion. But when Sue opened the cupboard the next morning she discovered a number of the sneaky little black guys congregating around the lid of the honey jar. And then, Sisters Country birds By Douglas Beall Correspondent Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus Rufus) is a fiery and often quarrelsome hummingbird that is the most common visitor to our nectar feeders. The brilliant orange gorget and rufous back flash in the sunlight as they move from blossom to blossom gleaning nectar. The Rufous is an important pollinator within the plant communi- ties, pollinating a number of plants that bees are unable to reach. Weighing in at a little over a penny, the Rufous Hummingbird feeds fre- quently, for it can lose up to 10 percent of its body weight overnight! They have mas- sive energy needs, as they maintain wingbeat speeds of 50-200 beats per second and a heart rate that can reach 1,280 beats per minute. The males perform mating dives reaching 100 feet as they try to impress the females. Males typically migrate earlier than females. In spring early arrival is impor- tant as they stake claim to the best breeding territories and then leave in late July or August. The female Rufous acts as a <single= parent as it handles all the rearing activities, which usually con- sists of two tiny, white eggs in a mossy lichen nest. A group of humming- birds are known as a <tune,= a <hover,= a <glittering,= or a <bouquet.= To see more hum- mer photos, visit http:// abirdsingsbecauseithasa- song.com/recent-journeys. PHOTO BY DOUGLAS BEALL Rufous Hummingbird. Have you done any NEW HOURS: Monday-Saturday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. OPEN FOR INDOOR & OUTDOOR DINING Phone orders for coffee, pastries, and box lunches. RENOVATIONS or added any STRUCTURES to your property? If so, don’t forget to update your insurance! SS • AUTO • HOME • HEALTH • LIFE • BUSINE 541-588-0311 541-549-3172 1-800-752-8540 201 E. Sun Ranch Dr. 704 W. Hood Ave., Sisters FARM • RENTAL 21 PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON Monomorium minumum, aka Little Black Ant, sugar ant, or piss ants. when we opened up the bag of my chief digestive aids 4 prunes 4 a bunch of ants slid out with them. You have to give them credit! Now that the ants were searching for a new way to get to a food source, Sue, while watching them go hither and thither, mused, <Just think what it must be like to live in the tropics&= She finally took some mint-scented toothpaste and, since we have white walls, spread it all around the win- dow frame and into any and all cracks where those little busybodies could find an entrance. In addition she has cleaned every surface with vinegar water and so far, fin- ger9s crossed, we have kept these intrepid insects at bay. Ain9t Nature grand!
