Prove it yourself:

Find a trail of ants and lay a strip of white bleached flour across their trail. (Try not to harm any of the little creatures.)

As the ants reach the flour they begin to make crazy little circles in confusion. Ultimately, an ant scout will find the outer edge of the flour barrier and all the ants will follow the scout back to the other side of the flour strip and continue on their path.

Now use the same amount of fresh-ground whole wheat flour and make a similar barrier strip 3-4ft away from the white flour strip. With a magnifying glass you should be able to see the ants within 12 to 18 inches turn their heads toward the whole wheat. They'll literally stop in their tracks, turn around, and go back to the whole-wheat flour and devour it.

From "Making The Best Of Basics" by James Talmadge Stevens quoting Delsa Wilson.

-- Creature (creature@zoo.net), February 05, 1999

Answers

I tried to do this experiment today. Unfortunately, I got impatient, and well... Magnifying glass... Ants... You do the math. Fire! Fire! hee hee

Seriously though, what's your point? Whole wheat is better than bleached white? Duh...

-- d (d@dgi.com), February 05, 1999.

What was the point? Let's dip 'em in chocolate and see if they run in little bitty circles then....

-- Mr_Kennedy (y2kPCfixes@motivatedseller.com), February 05, 1999.

What do they do if you put a piece bread in the way? I don't like to cook, and I hate cleaning up flour off the floor - so I don't want to make a mess on my wife's kitchen, and don't want to buy flour to test your theory.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), February 05, 1999.

The responding is the proof of the premise

-- ANT (rubber@tree.plant), February 05, 1999.

The "posting" is the proof of no premise.

--- Awards you the One Hand Clapping Award---

Mr. K

-- Mr_Kennedy (y2kPCfixes@motivatedseller.com), February 05, 1999.

Robert,

Forget about experiments. Go get those dam ants out of you kitchen.

I'd like too see another experiment done. Let's try the white bread as mentioned above. But instead of whole wheat lets put a dead lawyer out to the side and see if the ants are interested.

Better yet lets's bury a live one up to the neck and hope the ants will go for it.

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), February 05, 1999.

ROTFLMAO !

-- Mike (mickle2@aol.com), February 05, 1999.

Screw those ants, I'll just use my RAID!

-- ~~ (~~@~~.com), February 05, 1999.

I tried the recommended garlic, bay leaf, tansy, cayenne and coffee grounds to keep ants out of the kitchen during a short-lived drought last summer, but apparently they were gourmet ants and enjoyed the flavors. It wasn't until I got desperate and sprayed Off! along their run that they stopped coming for a drink. Sounds pretty profound to me, after reading Creature quoting James Talmadge Stevens quoting Delsa Wilson. What do you suppose it all means when added to the information about the two flours? There's at least one analogy in here somewhere.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 05, 1999.

Old Git:

Next time use a lemon... cut it in half, and rub the exposed pulp around all entry points. Then, cut up the rinds and leave nearby. Keeps them out.

-- Why2K? (who@knows.com), February 05, 1999.

We've found that boric acid powder, sprinkled along the baseboards behind the furniture (so rugrats & pets can't get to it) really does the job for the big roaches in Georgia. The powder sticks to 'em, they don't like it and clean it off, it's a poison to them once it's internal. 2-3 days and they're on their backs.

It might work for ants. Since we've been using this stuff we haven't seen any ants at all.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), February 05, 1999.

If you spray an ant with Off, do they go nuts trying to turn inside out?

What can you spray to keep the lawyers away?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), February 05, 1999.

LOL!

Thank you, ANT.

CO

-- Casual Observer (who@goes.there), February 05, 1999.

What is the lesson in the original post here?

So far the responses are proving the original premise!

-- Creature (creature@zoo.net), February 05, 1999.

Everyone knows that an ant can't move a Rubber Tree Plant

-- Other Lisa (LisaWard2@aol.com), February 05, 1999.

I hate you SOB's...thats the premise. YOUR ALL A BUNCH OF LUNATIC CRAZY IDIOTS AND I HATE YOU ALL.

-- Creature (creature@zoo.net), February 05, 1999.

Oh no its Gerald again. The cop that was molested by his garandfather.

-- (Y2K My @ss .Com), February 05, 1999.

We're just waiting with glee for you humans to destroy yourselves so we can get our space back. We will miss mooching off the human race, especially the fancy picnics with the Pringles and the potato salad. Nevertheless, we will win in the race for survival.

Go ahead and spray us all you want. Remember DDT? HAW HAW HAW? We adapted and grew more resilient...but you kept spraying us, and still doing it while inadvertantly destroying other species and damaging the ecosystem.

We insects have been around longer than you, and we'll still be here no matter what happens to you "superior" beings. We don't need to fight back, for you will merely destroy yourselves. It's just a matter of time.

-- Bug (bug@line4022.com), February 05, 1999.

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

-- An Ant (ant@ant.ant), February 05, 1999.

* I hate you SOB's...thats the premise. YOUR ALL A BUNCH OF LUNATIC CRAZY IDIOTS AND I HATE YOU ALL.

-- Creature (creature@zoo.net), February 05, 1999. *

THIS WAS POSTED BY A Creature IMPOSTOR.

-- Real Creature (crature@zoo.net), February 05, 1999.

I just got off the phone with the Psychic Friends Network. She told me that fake post was from "Y2K my ass"

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), February 05, 1999.

I think Uncle D. is correct. That response about Gerald was just a little TOO quick.

About the ant... well, the Bible says in Proverbs that we should take a lesson from the ant. They aren't lazy, and they're smart enough to put food aside for winter (hard times.) So, Creature, you might be correct. Although, I think most of the posters here ARE preparing.

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), February 05, 1999.

The creature is mad about something... poor creature

LOL LOL LOL

-- me (justme@aol.com), February 06, 1999.

* their heads toward the WHOLE WHEAT. They'll literally stop in their tracks, turn around, and go back to the whole-wheat flour and devour it. *

I know what the ants know and so did the baker in our village. This is an example of the bread he baked:

" ... she threw a kilo brick of black Teutonic bread at Pa's head. Unfortunately she missed and knocked the sliding door to the living room off its track instead. Pa was already off track from the war, the alcohol and the women. The speeding bread could have put him back on track. "

I truly believe that if I had eaten bleached white flour bread instead of whole grain bread during our starvation period I would have died from lack of nutrition. Bread was our main, and often our only food for many years.

-- Not Again! (seenit@ww2.com), February 06, 1999.

One word.

Anteater.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), February 06, 1999.