Charlie Ant and The Thunderstorm

By BlackJack

Hi, I'm Charlie the worker ant, and I want to tell you about my home and about my life. I live in a wonderful vegetable garden in the back yard of some nice humans. They use only natural pest control in their garden, and they let us ants survive to help keep the natural ecology of the area intact.

I am so glad of that, and so are all my fellow ants. I want to tell you about an adventure I had with a huge thunderstorm that nearly wiped out my home. One fine Summer day all of us worker ants were busy harvesting food from the garden, and having a fine time getting nice bits of tomato and squash to take back to our queen and the rest of the ants. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and we were all having a good time although working very hard. The Spring had brought many new young ants into the world, and we were always busy keeping food on the table for them.

We marched to and fro from the veggies to the hill where we all live. One by one, nose to tail, we marched and marched carrying our precious food to the hill. The sun had been beating down on us, and we were all so busy gathering and carrying food, that we didn't notice the huge black clouds gathering in the distance.

Then, a huge clap of thunder sounded, as the sky lit up with lightning everywhere. All of us workers grabbed what we could and began to head back to the hill at a very fast pace. Our queen would need all of us to help shore up the hill, and to fill in the entry holes during the rain.

As we hurried back, the rain began to pelt down, with huge drops falling everywhere. We would surely be drowned in this deluge.

Finally we reached the hill, and panic was everywhere, because a huge torrent of water was gushing down into the hole, caused by a branch that was lying right on our hill and making a dam for the rainwater. I could hear the frantic cries of our queen, and the mad scurrying of thousands of ant feet trying to stem the tide of water that was gushing into the hill.

I called to my fellow worker team, and we all rushed to the branch. Mustering all our strength, we started moving the branch. It was slow going in the mud and with rain pelting on us, but finally it began to move enough to drain away the water from our hill. We kept on pulling on it until it was finally moved away enough to let all the water run off. Now, we could shore up the hill, and fix our entryway again.

Thankfully, the rain stopped as we began work on the hill, and we were greeted by our queen herself, who congratulated all of us on a fine job, and all our fellow ants came out to sing their thanks as only ants can.

Worker ants don't always get a lot of recognition for their hard work, and this day was a very special one to me. Not only did I help save my home, but got congratulated by my queen herself. The hill was saved, we all had plenty of wonderful veggies for dinner, and that evening when the sun came back out, all of the ants swarmed around thanking us. We were so happy to be living in our wonderful vegetable garden, safe and sound after the huge storm.

Ants may be one of nature's small creatures, but we surely do know how to enjoy life's little adventures!