Ants, Smarter Than We Are?

In our home here in the Philippines you DO NOT EVER leave crumbs or dirty dishes out. Doing so invites ants and ants and more ants. We have been able to keep the ants at bay with some good ant killing gel and just being very quick to clean up after meals. Also the kids are only allowed to eat in the kitchen or in our dining room.

Then there is the microwave oven. Our toaster sits on top of the microwave. We get a little lazy and we are not as quick to clean the toaster from crumbs as we should, mainly because the ants do not seem to be interested. For a while I thought it was their fear of being fried if they happen to be in there feasting while we had a craving for some toast and jam. Now I am starting to wonder if the ants are a little smarter than we think.

I think it's the microwave oven. They simply do not go near it.

As an experiment I spilled a little pile of sugar on top of the microwave. Normally you spill sugar on the counter or floor, and ants come running. For days I watched my little sugar pile. They did not go near the sugar on the microwave. After a few other food experiments, I have determined that the ants do not go near the microwave. What do they know about the microwave that we don't?

Maybe all that talk and conspiracy theory about microwave oven technology being from aliens and causing cancer is true, and the ants know it.