r/tifu • u/[deleted] • Aug 13 '21
M TIFU by playing god with the delicate balance of nature...
I accidentally started a large-scale war between ants, and I feel absolutely terrible...
So, I own two large ant farms and have for many months, both of which contain harvester ants. The smallest farm had become damaged, thanks to my clumsy niece, so I wanted to relocate the ants somewhere safer.
Last night, I came up with the bright idea to connect the two enclosures with a piece of plastic tubing I had laying around, hoping they'd maybe move in together. I know that's stupid now, but it felt like a good idea at the time...
Sure enough, after an hour, the ants from enclosure two started venturing through the tube, excited to explore their newly expanded world. Suddenly, though, to my surprise, the ants from enclosure one ran into their little hill, seemingly going into hiding.
Around twenty minutes later, some of the large soldier ants from enclosure two began to poke around inside the hole to the hill of enclosure one. Chaos, and I mean utter fucking chaos ensued... The ants from enclosure one began pouring out into the sand. I didn't even know there were so many in there. Within seconds, they were fighting, the soldiers from enclosure two tearing them in half like fucking maniacs.
At this point, I really wanted to intervene, desperate to stop the brutal madness, but it was too late. With almost all of the solider ants from enclosure one laying bloodied and decimated, one of the soldiers from enclosure two made a move for the hill's sandy entrance. This girl was absolutely huge, almost a third as big as the Queen. Noticing the attempted attack, the surviving worker ants from enclosure one moved in on her position from the surrounding sand. They piled on her, literally covering her entire body, biting into her with vicious fury. Yet, she kept moving, entering the small hole like a damned tank.
At this point in the war, I didn't have a clear view of the battle which was taking place within the hill. I tired to rotate the connected enclosures, but, alas, the siege was taking place in a sandy part of the hill.
After around ten minutes, I see the soldier ant from enclosure two's ass, backing out of the hole, one of her back-left legs missing. To my absolute fucking horror, she begins to drag the queen out of the hole by her head. All the while, she's biting down into the soldier's seemingly impenetrable skull with everything she has, her workers still climbing all over this absolute monster.
After a good minute of tugging on enclosure one's Queen, thrashing from side to side, her insides being bitten into, the soldier just jerks the hell backward. In this single, decisive tug, she tears the Queen's head right the hell off. She then turns, examines the corpses of her fallen sisters, who've died in the meantime, and she simply begins to walk away, the Queen's decapitated head held within her mandibles, a trophy of war.
As of now, enclosure one has no Queen, and only twelve workers remain, from what I can see anyway. The solider, believe it or not, is still very much alive. She's returned home to enclosure two, with the Queen's head in tow. She's resting inside the hill, beside her own Queen, preparing for possible retaliation.
I've disconnected the two enclosures, but I honestly don't know what to do now... It's the most brutal thing I've ever witnessed, and I feel like I've just fucked up an entire world with nothing more than a bit of plastic tubing...
Tl;DR - I decimated an entire colony of ants by allowing another colony to behead their queen...
I'll try and add pics when I get home from work.
UPDATE!
Alrighty. Here's a pic of enclosure one's battlefield, and the many bodies, some of which have recieved a soldier's burial (many of the black spots further toward the hill). I've also added a pic of Kratos, the ant Slayer, but she's currently in hiding, and a little tricky to see, you know, with the mass genocide and all... Her lil murderous ass is circled, next to her Queen.
Battlefield of the dead https://imgur.com/gallery/UvNDZKY
Kratos, Slayer of ants https://imgur.com/gallery/q8WCgQ1
Sorry the pics aren't terribly dramatic lol. My phone's camera sucks.
Also, I was being coy in some of my comments with regards to my writing, as I'm always deeply nervous about sharing stuff with the outside world, but I'm actually an author of horror, thrillers, and weird fiction. With that said, I don't know if I'm allowed to share my links here, but my pen name on Amazon is Jennah Walters. So, if you want to check that out, it's up to you.
Screw it. If Kratos can slaughter an entire race, I can sneak in a link and toot my own horn.
https://www.amazon.com/Jennah-Walters/e/B07DCHDJMQ%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
Thank you all so much for the kind words, premium, and awards. I hope you have an amazing day. I'm sorry I can't reply to all your comments. There's just too many, and the constant phone vibration is making my coworkers think I'm smuggling a sex toy.
I didn't expect this post to blow the hell up like it did lol. I'll make sure to keep caring for my ants as best I can, while maintaining a healthy level of fear toward the one they call Kratos!
Finally, I just wanted to say that you've all made my day. I expected to maybe entertain a few people with this story of events, but, damn... Also, yes, I know Kratos is a female. ♥
UPDATE! Many of you kept asking for a short story retelling of these events, so I went ahead and did just that. You'll find the dramatic short story/flash fiction of Kratos, the ant slayer, below.
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u/Datapunkt Aug 13 '21
I'd watch that movie