May’s giant ant
It isn’t pretty to the eyes I mean, let’s face it; it’s a bug but, is it only a bug? Actually it isn’t.
This bug used to be the mark of an era that does not exist anymore and guess who’s responsible for this loss? We are.
I remember when I was a little kid that, I and my friends liked May as that was the month that came with a rain of this particular kind of bugs, a hilarious and exciting sight for our eyes. They flooded the streets like a live mantle and we used to enjoy playing with them though some car owners used to get upset as their automobiles were almost fully covered with these insects since the early mornings.
May’s giant ants were not only a fun thing to play with for us the once “little kids of our country”, and an annoying thing for the drivers and traffic, but they were also a particular part of May’s commerce and eating supplements. Believe it or not these bugs could and were highly consumed as they were very rich in nutrients and some say “tasty” – fortunately or not, I never got to taste one of these little creepy insects. I never gathered the gust to try one. – “They taste like peanuts”, my mom used to say.
I remember the first May these insects didn’t show up. We were noticing from years before that they arrived later and later in the month every year. But that particular May – I don’t remember the year – they didn’t. We all started asking our friends if they found or at least had a glimpse of one and we all said no. However, nobody paid attention to that as it was a “little” and “insignificant” thing that didn’t affect our daily living.
Surprising the entire country and mostly the people living in the capitol city, May’s giant ants showed up in “June” for the first time ever, which is a little bit ironic considering the popular name of the ants – nobody ever even tried to change that name to “June’s giant ants”. – That continued to happen the subsequent years until last year – 2009 – which for some reason or better said our fault; they didn’t show up at all.
I’m not a biologist or a scientist, and I have not been able to find any recent information about this giant ants, but I can tell that in my personal experience I didn’t get to see any and that made me think a lot about the damage we’re doing to this planet and the number of species that are going extinct due to us.
These little and magnificent creatures had a biological clock that made them get out of their hideouts every year at the same exact time but, we messed up so much with their environment that we changed that clock. We changed it to the point of telling them not to get out anymore as the weather wasn’t good for them; that made them stop feeding and reproducing themselves, and now they stopped visiting us.
I wonder how many other species, traditions, pleasures, etc. we will void our children to enjoy if we keep treating this planet with unbelievable disrespect and careless attitude.
I’m just looking forward for this years May or June – maybe July – to see if these now missed creatures forgive us for neglecting their way of living and pay us a visit. I sure hope to see at least one.
