Sometimes Having Mercy Pays Off

On my desk, I left a morsel of uneaten food the other day over night. In the morning, there was a line of ants going at it. I could not trace the path back to their nest.

I removed the food bit and smote the ants. Three days later, the ants, although not in so many a number, still were going at the non-existing food. It dawned on me that ants are blind. They cannot see the food or lack there of, but can only follow their chemical trail to the food. So after killing a bunch of them, I spared a few. After a day, there were no more ants. Evidently, the un-killed ants came back to their nest and told the rest that there is no food at the end this particular trail as opposed to no news to colony so the colony keeps on sending their troops to retrieve the food .