Oh, sure, you ants think you're so great with your work ethic and your joylessness and your savings accounts. Up yours, ants! I'm stepping on you! How awesome are you now? You're dead! So much for being "the insect that behaves properly." Sure, you may be "proper"...but now you are also flattened on the sole of my boot! Ha ha ha! Goodbye, stinky ant! Better luck next life!See the Wikipedia entry below to read more about ants and why they think they're better than you:
Ants have often been used in fables and children's stories to represent industriousness and cooperative effort. They are also mentioned in religious texts. In the Book of Proverbs in the Bible, ants are held up as a good example for humans for their hard work and cooperation. Aesop did the same in his fable The Ant and the Grasshopper. In the Quran, Sulayman is said to have heard and understood an ant warning other ants to return home to avoid being accidentally crushed by Sulayman and his marching army. In parts of Africa, ants are considered to be the messengers of the gods. Ant bites are often said to have curative properties. The sting of some species of Pseudomyrmex is claimed to give fever relief. Some Native American mythology, such as the Hopi mythology, considers ants as the very first animals. Others use ant bites in initiation ceremonies as a test of endurance.
Ant society has always fascinated humans and has been written about both humorously and seriously. Mark Twain wrote about ants in his A Tramp Abroad. Some modern authors have used the example of the ants to comment on the relationship between society and the individual. Examples are Robert Frost in his poem "Departmental" and T. H. White in his fantasy novel The Once and Future King. The plot in French entomologist and writer Bernard Werber's Les Fourmis science-fiction trilogy is divided between the worlds of ants and humans; ants and their behaviour is described using contemporary scientific knowledge. In more recent times, animated cartoons and 3D animated movies featuring ants have been produced include Antz, A Bug's Life, The Ant Bully, The Ant and the Aardvark, Atom Ant, and there is a comic book superhero called Ant-Man.
From the late 1950s through the late 1970s, ant farms were popular educational children's toys in the United States. Later versions use transparent gel instead of soil allowing greater visibility. In the early 1990s, the video game SimAnt, which simulated an ant colony, won the 1992 Codie award for "Best Simulation Program".
Ants are also quite popular inspiration for many science-fiction creatures, such as the Formics of Ender's Game, the Bugs of Starship Troopers, the giant ants in the film Them!, and ants mutated into super intelligence in Phase IV. In strategy games, ant-based species often benefit from increased production rates due to their single-minded focus, such as the Klackons in the Master of Orion series of games or the ChCht in Deadlock II. These characters are often credited with a hive mind, a common misconception about ant colonies.
Forget Shark Week--it's Ant Week!
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