(Texas) Last weekend when I popped the lid on hive #2 in my backyard, I immediately noticed an old nemesis. The ants. $#%#@!! The same kind of ants, with the same lid that had given me fits in the past. I felt like I had been transported into a cliché sci-fi universe where I am constantly fighting the same enemies over and over. Like Klingons in Star Trek XIV.
Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Count to ten. I placed the hive lid on the driveway. I went into the garage and grabbed the lid that used to be part of the dead hive from Paul’s house. I put that lid on the hive.
The old ant lid is still sitting on my driveway. Presumably with a colony of ants still living in it. I’m not sure that there is much use in keeping it. It’s old, falling apart, and has made a pact with the universe to give inalienable shelter to ant-forms. It is quite possibly the worst hive lid in the world.
Where bees have once lived, bees are likely to live again. Scout bees when looking for a suitable hive location are prejudiced in favor of locations that have been used in the past. Chemical receptors can detect the presence of a past hive. The same is true for ants. Where this lid is—when placed on a hive—will always lead to war between these species, bee and ant. I admit I am not a neutral party. I favor the bee. A pox on the ants!