Little Miss on… Ants

One of my least favourite things about moving to the tropics is having to contend with creepy crawlies on a daily basis. From geckos to grasshoppers, centipedes to cockroaches, pesky minibeasts are a part of everyday life here. Having had minimal exposure to bugs in Scotland, the girls (and I, admittedly) tended to run screaming at the sight of them when we first arrived back in Singapore. But slowly, we are getting used to it, and the girls are starting to take a little interest in some of these wee creatures.

One of the most ubiquitous and fascinating minibeasts are the ants. From tiny black ones to mildly stinging red ones, they are impossible to avoid. Apparently, the largest ones in Singapore grow up to 3cm long; these are Giant Forest Ants, and thankfully you actually have to go into proper forested areas to see them.

Little Miss and I always have a bit of time to kill in the mornings between dropping Miss Chu off at school and going into kindergarten, so we often spend that time in our small local park, which happens to be a great place to observe ant life. There must be several large colonies underground as we often see ants emerging from and disappearing into little holes. They make massive long trails through the earth, on concrete paths, and even across sand and grass. You really have to watch your step, as we have found out the hard way! But seeing them en masse, up close, is oddly mesmerising.

So after months of making cameo appearances in Miss Chu’s News, Little Miss has decided she is finally ready to make a video all of her own, and that it will be about the ants. Here it is: