I saw a swarm of ants on the road the other day. They were crowding around the carcass of a dead worm. As I stood there, watching the ants for a while, I built up as much saliva in my mouth as I could. I then spat a big glob right into the centre of the ant swarm. Immediately, the ants caught in the puddle started frantically struggling for their lives. The spit around the sides was more watery, so most of the ants at the edge were able to swim to safety. The ants outside the edge of the puddle went ballistic. It was right in the middle of their pheromone trail, so they'd run into it, start to panic, run back to tell the ant behind, that ant would panic, and so on. Only one ant was caught in the middle of the puddle. The spit in the centre was so thick and viscous, so mucous-like that the ant was completely trapped. Its back legs were completely submerged, so as much as it tried to crawl away the mucous would just stretch then spring it back to the centre. Other ants tried to pull it out to no avail. It was a hot sunny day so the snot started to harden and the ant was trapped in a crystal prison. In total, I stayed there watching that ant struggle for at least ten minutes. Several people saw me sitting down staring at the road, but no one came close enough to see what I was doing.
