Today I took a phone-call from an ant-collector interested in sourcing specimens from Melbourne Museum's Bugs Alive! exhibition. Now, we weren't able to offer him any live insects, but we did have a good discussion about ants in which I learned about a tool called a "pooter" which is used by humans to dislodge ants from their nests with the help of strategically-positioned (straw-like!) tubes.
Artwork: Sharyn Madder Source: Museum Victoria
Eerie, isn't it? But then I learnt that Museum Victoria staff have developed a so-called "Super Pooter" which hooks one of these things up to a vacuum cleaner for heavy-duty scouring. Whoosh!
5c68684c-7682-449a-8d9e-c4bdc5c926c9|1|5.0