Ants in your house? Here’s how they get everywhere – even high up in tall buildings

Windy Soemara/Shutterstock Tanya Latty, University of SydneyAnts are among nature’s greatest success stories, with an estimated 22,000 species worldwide. Tropical Australia in particular is a global hotspot for ant diversity. Some researchers believe it could hold some of the richest ant biodiversity on the planet, with an estimated 5,000 species in the tropics alone. But if ants are so successful out in nature, why do they so often turn up in our homes and even upper-level apartments? And what can we do to keep them out? There’s probably an ant near you right now Ants dominate the planet in terms of sheer abundance. At any given moment, there are an estimated 20 quadrillion ants alive — that’s 20 followed by 15 zeros. In fact, for every human being, there are roughly 2.5 million ants. There are about 22,000 ant species worldwide. This one is called the Green tree ant (Oecophylla smaragdina). Tanya LattySo the short answer to “Why are there ants in my house?” is simply this: there are a lot of ants. We live on a planet where ants outnumber us by an almost unimaginable margin. The fact that a few occasionally wander into our homes shouldn’t come as a surprise. Ants work from home (yours, that is) Ants owe much of their success to their highly social nature. Within the colony, some individuals (female queens...

Read More........→March 28, 2025

South Africa Bans Commercial Fishing at Penguin Breeding Spots Where Food Supply Shortage Could Drive Extinction

African penguins on a Cape Coast beach – credit S Martin, CC 2.0., via FlickrFor a critically endangered species of penguin, a recent decision to remove fishing competition from its hunting and breeding grounds may prove to be the key to saving it.In the rich waters of South Africa’s cape and Atlantic coastlines, 6 key breeding colonies of the African penguin are now no-go zones for commercial sardine and anchovy harvesting, according to a recent court order.Less than 10,000 breeding pairs of this penguin survive, and conservation groups hailed the court’s decision that will protect the colony’s feeding areas for at least a decade.“This order of court is a historic victory in the ongoing battle to save the critically endangered African Penguin from extinction in the wild,” said BirdLife South Africa, one of the groups that had called for the protection.The protected areas include Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. Dassen Island, further up South Africa’s Atlantic coast, and the Stony Point Nature Reserve, make up two of the other 6 areas in total where penguin protections are kicking in.The court’s decision followed weeks of “exceptionally hard work and negotiations between the conservation NGOs and the commercial sardine and anchovy fishing industry,” according to SANCCOB, one of those very NGOs.“This...

Read More........→March 27, 2025