Army (Cesar Chavez) Ants
Come celebrate the recently relocated Cal Academy of Science museum, now on Howard between 4th and 5th Streets and the rejuvenation of their exhibit on ants. (We would have used the picture of the big ant colony [scroll down] to illustrate this posting but -- well, it freaked us out. Sorry.)
Rejuvenation, you ask? Why rejuvenation? Well, so the ants exhibit used to house over a million army ants in a big glass case. Unfortunately (see sidebar), when a shipment of army ant food (crickets) was transported to the museum, they accidentally brought over a colony of dermestid beetles with them. The beetles got into the case when the curators fed the ants the crickets, and promptly ate all the ants. (While army ants are usually fierce predators with the big ol' stingers and jaws, the beetles produce toxic larva, so they won. Ah, the food chain, gets ya every time).
Furthermore, it was quite a tale of woe getting a new shipment of army ants in the exhibit from their home in Central America back to their new SOMA home. Click on through for the gory details.
When the team first got to Costa Rica, they couldn't find any ant colonies in the rain forest. Then they finally found one but couldn't get the ants out until they sat through a huge storm. The storm didn't end until 3 a.m., at which point the two entomologists frantically vacuumed up as many ants as they could. "It didn't take long for the ants to come screaming out and up my legs and right up my face," said one entomologist, thrilled. (Entomology is so not SFist's next career choice).
Then, carrying 1.2 million ants, they went to the airport and found out their flight was cancelled. They somehow managed to get on a flight to L.A. (presumably, by shaking a big container at the counter and saying, "We have 1.2 million ants in here!"). The ants traveled in cargo -- hope you didn't try to sneak any fruit back into the country on that flight. But when they got to LA, the FAA wouldn't let them in, because they only had a permit to bring the ants to SF. The entomologists, in a rare victory, did manage to convince LA security it wouldn't be such a great idea to open the containers. After some phone calls and some begging, they finally got permission to come back to the city and deliver their cargo.
On Thursday morning, the scientists ceremonially reopened the army ant exhibit, dumping their booty into the glass case as hordes of school children chanted, "Release the ants!" "We had no mortalities," reports the entomologist. "Right now they're running around like crazy." Oh, and crickets are no longer on the army ants' menu. Now they eat maggots instead.