Ants, Anthromorphized
582352
I'm not an ant-lover per se, but I'd had my antennae up for an ant anthology. I ordered Dr. Eleanor's Book of Common Ants and awaited its arrival with anticipation. I got so antsy waiting that my stomach began to hurt. I took my antianxiety medication and an antacid and then looked in the mailbox. There it was! Dr. Eleanor's Book of Common Ants! With the television on in the other room - someone was watching a baseball game, but it had started yet. Both teams were standing on the foul lines and they were playing the national anthem - I entered an antechamber and began reading.

What joy! This book is full of antecdotes about the ants that populate our world and the kingdoms that they construct in our yards. There are anthromorphized ants - protagonists and, of course, antagonists. Dr. Eleanor has a lovely way of writing that hooks the reader, like an ant following a trail of breadcrumbs. Her writing is approachable and nonthreatening, ant gives us a new understanting of our world. Who knew that almost all of the ants that we see are female? Who knew that there were so many different types of ants at our feet? Well, I know that now.

I haven't completed reading the book, but I know however it ends, it won't be anti-climactic. After I finish, I'll definitely be passing this book along to someone who'll love it, like my dad's sister.
2927385
You know this is a girl's best friend!

Ants = gross

Terro Ant Killer = Problem solved

They'll just come and much away on this, walk back to the creepy place they came from, and die. Well, Hallelujah!
1540937
These are great! It took a couple of hours before the ants started going in but once they did, all the ants disappeared within three hours and they have not returned!
768990
These ant stakes actually do work.  Sometimes you have to entice the ants to the stake by adding a little sugar to the gel with a toothpick.  Then spread a small thin trail to the opening.  This enduces the ants to find the main opening.  I suggest using gloves and do this outside and throw everything away so as not to allow children to have access to any of the ant killer material.

The ants congregate and you may see a spike in the number of ants in the immediate area, within a day or two, the entire colony is decimated :)

This is my experience with argentinian ants.  Too bad they were not indigenous to North America.  Now we have to deal with them :(
2772431
Sorry to report that we still have ants.  We can't see any improvement, even after using them for more than two weeks..  We are thinking about returning them.
977448
I will never again deliberately kick in an anthill. (Nor should anyone who lives in tick-infested areas, because ants kill ticks.)
  Anthropomorphism is perhaps all but unavoidable in storytelling about non-human creatures; but here it is limited to the ants' thoughts and conversations; and how can we really prove they don't think deep thoughts and hold conversations? Otherwise, while I admit I am no entomologist, their life patterns struck me as realistically convincing: I even found a rationale for the author's applying the male pronoun to everyone but the queen(s). At the same time, parables applicable to human society are going on here, with elitist vs. democratic forms of government and the menace of a ruthlessly totalitarian enemy. Above all, the main characters -- all ants -- become sympathetic individuals: These little creatures became very real to me, and I grew very concerned about who would survive, and how; saying more than once, "Oh, I didn't want that one to die!"
  It is one of the very few books that, as soon as I had finished, I began rereading at once.
2243427
It was a  sticky mess and .the ants kept coming. After over two weeks usage the ants still came. Had to order and try a different brand of ant killer.
1750820
Back in the day, ant farms were a joke. This one is tremendous. Ants arrived on schedule and started tunnelling immediately. Our 6 year old loves it.
42211
This book preserves some of the best of the NY Times - Science Times writing.  Most fascinating to me are the stories of social insects, such as bees swarming around a hornet and producing enough heat to "fry them" or ants and fungus cohabitating.  Also fascinating were the insects not normally thought of as social - but occurring in groups; such as 16,000 dung beetles on one elephant patty, and the communal tropical spider in groups of 165,000 in Mexico (sounds like a scene out of Harry Potter).  The spiders of course aren't insects, but thrown in for good measure.
There are also fascinating stories of extremes such as the Saharan silver ants that survive in 140 degree F heat.  Also interesting are tales of the entomologist, Dr. Raffensperger, the consulting insect detective, or the conservation biologist who is willing to doom the "Uncompahgre fritillary butterfly" to extinction.  These short essays, and occasional illustrations are delightful.  Lest you think insects inconsequential, they outweigh humans by a factor of 50.
2095978
In the Everglades, you encounter a new species - mutant spider ants, because ants and spiders are too cute and cuddly on their own.  You must try to survive their onslaught, without succumbing to the other dangers of the Everglades.  This is an engaging book, and it gets a little unsettling, as the mutant spider ants are perfectly content to eat humans, including on especially happy ending where they eat you in your hospital bed.  Don't worry, they don't eat you in every ending, as sometimes they poison you and then eat you, or simply use their webs to immobilize you completely.  Of course, the mutant spider ants are also dangerous as they distract you from the other dangers of the Everglades - quicksand, alligators, and lightning strikes while on open water.  In fact, if you accidentally enter quicksand, you are doomed no matter what you choose, as either you sink in the quicksand, or the mutant spider ants catch while you are trying to get out of the quicksand.  Sweet dreams.
2907868
I AM NOT FINISHED READING "THE ANTS" YET'BUT ALREADY I HAVE LEARNED MANY THINGS.ANTS LIVE IN A COMPLEX SOCIETAL STRUCTURE,EVERY ANT DOING A SPECIAL JOB FOR THE GOOD OF THE COLONY.
3357492
Misery and death seems to be the prevailing theme here. They might not have the brains of the great philosophers but anyone can see how frigging miserable these animals are. Toss it if you have purchased, don't buy if you haven't yet. We got a terrarium, filled it with a bag of four-dollar dirt, and even got a 99 cent plant from the sale rack and relocated our ants. They are super normalized, busy and much more fun to stare at now. If using for education for your wee buggers, I suggest this route. Cheap and easy and much more natural.
1819384
Synopsis:
 Fire ants made giant via bio-engineering have start a mass invasion of a small town. Everywhere one looks rivers of ants swarm the ground, each one with a poteintially deadly sting. The plot is mainly set in the perspective of 3 parties: a dentist office, employees trapped in thier office building, and an entemologist involved in a robbery of a convinence store by two homocidal maniacs. All three parties have one common atribute: they are trapped, and are desperatly trying to elude the hostile ivertibrates.

Review:
 This is a decent creature feature in any sense: we have characters, creatures, and characters being killed by the creatures with some mild action and suspence thrown into the mix. It is not by any standard a superior or even intelligent novel, but it is entertaining, despite the fact that the whole overgrown ants plot device is very overdone. One thing that anoyed me is when they introduce the larger ants the size of dogs, and later buses. As many people well know the ant's anotomy is not designed to become this large and surely no such specimens could exist, but the thought of rivers of angry fire ants is belivable if not practical. In addition, this book releases many forms of comady relife so it creates the illusion that one is watching a B-movie. This helps the reader not take the book as seriously and therefore makes some of the more ridiculous parts easiar to swallow, such as the giant homocidal butterflies (don't ask). The ending was somewhat anti-climatic and didn't conclude earlier parts of the novel, but was decent and will not leave the reader saying "what about..." and going on a mad rampage searching for a sense of conclusion.

Grade:B

Recommendations: creature feature fans; but not entemologists for they will simply be infruiated by the impossible arthropods in this novel.

Cost: I paid for a new copy of this novel and frankly, didn't look back afterwards.
2083160
Live in the south now. Learned about ghost ants and sugar ants. This is the answer!
671908
I couldn't wait to turn the page to see what those adorable ants would find as I read this book with my grandson. This beautifully illustrated book will open the hearts of children everywhere while sparking their imagination and curiosity as they discover that they alone have the power over what they think, say and do and that ANYTHINGS POSSIBLE, ANYTHING GOES!!  I highly recommend this book.
686202
It is worth it to get ants from Antworks, our backyard ants were too tiny and escaped, so we ordered the suggested ants and it was awesome to watch.
2628406
Even from a library, the book is in excellent condition so I enjoy it greatly. The proportion of text to illustration is almost 50:50. Helping my research. Found five specimens not captured by a Google search (which is not unexpected, but a good surprise). These findings are in line of my morphometric study. I am sure I will be discovering the book in the future.