Justifiable (and artistic, and scientific) cruelty to animals

[hudebnik]

The comments page has a flamefest about the morality of killing hundreds or thousands of ants in the name of Art. Which side one takes in the argument seems to depend largely on whether one has ever met a fire-ant. I have, and I'm fine with it :-)

Thanks to Phlip for the link.

Comments

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

I saw somewhere else that this was an abandoned colony, so...

Possible, but unlikely.

[hudebnik.livejournal.com]

Several ants appear on the surface between 20-40 seconds in.

Perhaps they'll run off, find another colony, and introduce themselves by saying "Call me Ishmael..."

[la-peregrina.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, totally fine with it. Unknowingly sat near a nest while I was out hiking in Florida when I was 14. They had gotten under my shirt up to my armpits and under my jeans legs up to my knees when the advance scouts decided to bite all at once. Probably the only time I ever took off my shirt outdoors when I wasn't at a beach.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

But molten aluminum can't really harm them.

FIRE ants, duh!

:-)

[siderea]

That's seriously cool!

Is there a discussion of methodology anywhere? The original stills of the mound show it a different color, texture and size of the mound they pour into; it looks like they built up the original mound with some other material, and I wonder what it is and why they did that. Also if there are safety considerations. How did they prep the mound without getting seriously stung?

[la-peregrina.livejournal.com]

Probably prepped the mound at night, when the cooler ground temps leave the ants more-or-less dormant.

[siderea]

Ah! I am not hip to the ways of fire-ants.

[la-peregrina.livejournal.com]

If you live in the South for any length of time, you learn about them one way or another. Once they got here accidentally off a South American cargo ship docked in Alabama in the 1930s, the sugar cane crop here experienced a sharp drop in the infestation of cane-borer worms. The ants eat those worms. Unfortunately, migrant workers have the misery of dealing with the ants on top of other hardships.

[siderea]

Oh, wow. I had no idea there was a sense they were beneficial. I mean, beyond making pretty aluminum statuary.