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Decline of an Empire


Vagabond

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High up near the top of the Ashdown Forest lies the Five Hundred Acre Wood. The wood is now criss-crossed by foresters’ tracks, many of which are public footpaths, but it was not always so. When I was a boy, over seventy years ago, there were very few trails in the wood, as access was forbidden.

Forbidden access was no obstacle to determined small boys, however, and we knew and traversed every inch, not only of the “Five Hundred” , but the Ashdown Forest and its surrounds for a radius of ten miles.

 

Thus it was that we came across “The Empire of the Ants” Not just any old ants, but wood-ants, which build large mounds in Southern heaths and woods. You can smell the formic acid-based odour the mounds give off from several yards away. The ants themselves look terrifying, half an inch long, long legs and fast moving. They can squirt poison a few centimetres, and prêy on oak caterpillars and pine-moth grubs, climbing trees to get at them. Thus the mounds are found near oaks and pines. On open heathland the ants favour bracken. However, despite their fearsome appearance, in seventy years on the forest, I have never been bitten by a wood-ant, nor come across anyone who has. I’m not brave enough to test the hypothesis that they don’t bite humans , so normally I give them a wide berth.

 

Which brings me to the “Empire” In the “Five Hundred “ wood there used to be a small pond containing small tench and surrounded by oak-trees and several large wood-ant mounds. Having found it, and being a fan of H.G.Wells, I named the water “The Empire of the Ants” All along the banks of the pond wood-ants scurried to and fro – there was not a square foot anywhere near the pond that was ant-free. In those days very few local ponds held tench. In fact, this was the only such pond within walking distance (ten miles) of my home. There was thus a conflict between wood-ant phobia and my desire to catch tench. So imagine a ten-year-old fishing for tench in this pond, not sitting down with angling accoutrements scattered around the swim, but standing, carrying everything about his person, and slowly “marking time”, like a soldier on parade, as he fished, with anxious glances at his feet every ten seconds

 

The tench were small – small enough to go in a two-pound jam jar – and were transported to and released into other (reasonably ant-free) ponds in the area (there was no Section 30 in those days). Incidentally, I cannot remember ever re-capturing a tench from any of the ponds thus stocked - unlike other ponds we “seeded” with other species such as roach, rudd, perch, gudgeon and crucians.

 

A year or so ago I mentioned the “Empire” to Norma, and her bird-watching interest was immediately aroused. Green woodpeckers (Yaffles) love wood-ants for lunch,. Norma hoped to find some yaffles feeding upon wood-ants, so I promised to show her the “Empire” when we were next in the area.
What a change ! Nothing there but birch scrub and brambles. Over sixty years worth of falling oak leaves had filled the pond, so not a drop of water to be seen, just a miry patch of silt and rotting vegetation. The oaks had gone (forestry ?) and with them the wood-ant mounds. In fact not a wood-ant in sight.

Hic transit gloriae mundi. Not one of life’s prime angling spots, but I was saddened to find it gone.

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RNLI Governor

 

World species 471 : UK species 105 : English species 95 .

Certhia's world species - 215

Eclectic "husband and wife combined" world species 501

 

"Nothing matters very much, few things matter at all" - Plato

...only things like fresh bait and cold beer...

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I know places similar to that but without the wood ants, or at least I can't remember 'em, usually red or black ants round here.

Yep, wood-ants are common in the south-east, rare in midlands and north - absent from Scotland. There is some other sort of mound builder in Scotland but a different species.

 

We get the smaller black and red ants also - they DO bite - usually after 300 have already got up yer trouser leg !

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RNLI Governor

 

World species 471 : UK species 105 : English species 95 .

Certhia's world species - 215

Eclectic "husband and wife combined" world species 501

 

"Nothing matters very much, few things matter at all" - Plato

...only things like fresh bait and cold beer...

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Plenty of wood ants and green woodpeckers in the Wyre Forrest and along much of the middle Severn. Not many pools about though except those that are man made and coveted. The only smattering of small natural pools that I can think of (allegedly containing tench and crucians) are now contained within the boundary of the local safari park.

Species caught in 2020: Barbel. European Eel. Bleak. Perch. Pike.

Species caught in 2019: Pike. Bream. Tench. Chub. Common Carp. European Eel. Barbel. Bleak. Dace.

Species caught in 2018: Perch. Bream. Rainbow Trout. Brown Trout. Chub. Roach. Carp. European Eel.

Species caught in 2017: Siamese carp. Striped catfish. Rohu. Mekong catfish. Amazon red tail catfish. Arapaima. Black Minnow Shark. Perch. Chub. Brown Trout. Pike. Bream. Roach. Rudd. Bleak. Common Carp.

Species caught in 2016: Siamese carp. Jullien's golden carp. Striped catfish. Mekong catfish. Amazon red tail catfish. Arapaima. Alligator gar. Rohu. Black Minnow Shark. Roach, Bream, Perch, Ballan Wrasse. Rudd. Common Carp. Pike. Zander. Chub. Bleak.

Species caught in 2015: Brown Trout. Roach. Bream. Terrapin. Eel. Barbel. Pike. Chub.

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I see plenty of Wood ants and their mounds in the New Forest: there's no shortage of Green Woodpeckers either but I've yet to surprise one off of a Wood ants nest, it's something I've commented to the wife about before now.

 

There are some routes I regularly take where it's almost impossible not to tread on a few as they are so numerous. I've never been bitten or squirted by a Wood ant and I've got pretty close a few times taking pics of them.

 

 

Red ants are another story, I got bitten by one of those little blighters on the inside of my thigh once whilst walking across a field, I dropped my trousers right there and then to deal with it.

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Yep, wood-ants are common in the south-east, rare in midlands and north - absent from Scotland. There is some other sort of mound builder in Scotland but a different species.

 

We get the smaller black and red ants also - they DO bite - usually after 300 have already got up yer trouser leg !

 

 

Thinkin' about it Dave I have seen some anty type mounds round here, just can't think where. I know i've seen some seriously large anty type mounds 20 mile across to Ainsdale at Southport. They're in the pine forests and i'm sure they where made from sand and pine needles. Next time I go over there i'l have a kick at one and see what comes out to attack lol. I know it's full of red and black ants on those dunes round there as when i've been sat down waiting for the ferret to bolt a rabbit they've done exactly what you posted....gone up your trouser leg!

 

One thing that sticks in my mind from being a kid about ants was when I was walking home from infant school one day, I was walking down a dirt path down the railway sidings (it was normal back then to walk home as you never seemed to hear about molesters back then) and noticed a genuine ant battle (honestly)....it was a huge war between red ants and black ants. I actually stopped and watched for ages as they fought and if I remember rightly the red ones won and proceeded to carry off the black ones. I got a right ****in' when I got home as me dad had been out frantically looking for me. He wasn't impressed when I tried to tell him why i'd been held up lol.

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Plenty of wood ants here one mound as long as we have and probably long before ,spotted the odd bird "bathing" in one but the green woodpeckers are usually digging holes in my lawn than eating the far easier victims off the nest ,perhaps the eggs are easier to get or red ants taste like ginger?

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Had to do a bit of Google searching since your wood ants are called carpenter ants on this side of the pond. Interesting little critters.

" My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!" - Harry Truman, 33rd US President

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Nicely written, Dave. If one fishes for as long as you have, the ephemeral nature of ponds is revealed first hand.

 

 

I've got plenty of sodding ants in my garden, I'm always slicing off the tops of their hills with the lawnmower. Gives the slow worms something to eat, I suppose.

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