November 27, 1997 - A 'Shocking' Storm and Ants of FireNovember 27, 1997 • The Suffolk Times • 7 A
A `Shocking' Storm and Ants of Fire
It's the lightning capital of the world,
they told me after a night of "snap, crack-
le and boom" down here in southwest
Florida. It had started as one of those
quiet rains, the kind you remember from
when you were young and tented down at
the point, the kind
of rain that puts �OCU
you to sleep as if , ,
someone had on
sprinkled a sleep-
ing potion over Nature
you.
Our little cam- by Paul
per is close to a StOUteUbU[gh
tent and passes on
that same wondrous pitter - patter. So gen-
tle was the rain that the only precaution
we had taken was to close the skylight.
The other windows and door were open. I
vaguely remember hearing the rolling of
faraway thunder once, but my dream
machine took over and I never heard a
thing until the most godawful clap of
thunder had both of us practically stand-
ing at attention in bed.
By then the sky had opened and a
parade of thunder and lightning rolled
over us for the next few hours, along
with torrents of rain. Through the blue -
green light of the "marching band" we
could see the water pouring down the
now - closed windows, as puddles spilled
into streams and streams looked for an
escape along the pitched roadside that is
part of the design of every house, com-
munity, shopping center, filling station,
car lot and forgotten field. From those
roadside ditches everything flows into
canals, which eventually find their way
to the sea. Florida is one big drainage
maze. What doesn't drain off is pumped
off.
The next day's weather report told of
our three or four inches of rain almost as
a second thought, for by then the sun was
out and the water had mostly receded and
what was left were only the telltale "high
tide" marks in yards and ditches.
I'm writing this in a huge parking lot
while Barbara is shopping. As I look over
the vast blacktop I notice that three or
four big live oaks have escaped the wrath
of the bulldozer and are struggling to sur-
vive amongst the cars. From the leaf, we
who live in the north would not recognize
this splendid member of the royal oaks
because its leaf is small and not at all oak -
shaped. It's more like the leaf of our bay-
berry, and what makes it doubly different
is that it does not lose all of its leaves as
ours do each fall.
It's the "tree of the south" that grows to
huge proportions and is usually seen with
great garlands of Spanish moss hanging
from its long outsretched limbs. It's the
tree of the old
plantations that is
so characteristic of
the South. It was
the tree sought
after during the
heyday of the
wooden ships. Its
elbows and limbs
were formed into
natural -grown ribs
of some of the
mightiest sailing
craft of the day.
Yet with all its size
and grandeur its
acorns are only a
bit stubbier than a
single peanut and
it is during this
time of the year
that the acorns
down here mature.
From the very top
of the tree to the
falling nuts on the
blacktop, acorns
are aplenty here —
none will ever have the chance of rebirth.
Nature never lets anything go to waste,
even in a parking lot.
What's taking advantage of this free
meal of acorns are hundreds of grackles.
We have the purple grackle in our area in
great flocks each fall as they pass through
our woods chattering amongst them-
selves and browsing through the leaf duff,
where they seek out acorns and insects.
Here in the South, the most common
grackle we see is the boat - tailed grackle,
a larger bird mainly because of its larger
and wider tail.
I'm watching a flock of them busily
scavenging as they work the tree above
and the acorns below. Each one tries to
beat the other to the easy picking spread
out before them. The females are a bit
smaller and are a brownish color so they
can blend in better with the surroundings
when sitting on the nest. Then, almost as
if someone had given them a command,
they're up and off and the trees in the
parking lot are left alone. I look to the sky,
for often this kind of explosive action by
groups of birds is due to a hawk that has
come into the area. They, like all of
they started biting.
We're told they were introduced into
southern Florida in the '30s and have been
spreading their menace ever since. It's a
little insignificant creature, a mere eighth -
to a quarter -inch long, reddish -brown to
black in color and just about as ornery and
aggressive as an insect can be. Lucky for
Barbara she had on socks and they only
stung her two or three times. On reading
up on these little
devils, we've found
that babies have
actually been killed
by them when they
crawled, unattend-
ed, into a nest.
Adults often wind
up in the hospital.
Their sting is
painful and that ter-
rible itch can last for
days. Campaigns to
exterminate them
have failed. The
only hope is to keep
them under control.
Right where we
are staying the fire
ants keep popping
up alongside the
sidewalks and in the
lawn. Their hills are
small to begin with,
but if left alone can
grow to three feet in
diameter. Their hills
look innocent
enough but should you disturb them,
immediately the troops are called out and
anything and anyone will be ravenously
attacked and stung. It's unbelievable how
quickly they muster to defend their colony.
I tried to photograph this behavior by
stepping quickly on one of their hills and
then drawing my A parade of
foot away. The
footprint was thunder and
immediately li hnin rolled
covered by swar-
ming defenders. Over us for the
My photograph next few
showed little hours, along
because they are
so small, but with torrents
from my view it of rain.
told me to
beware. There are ways of fighting the fire
ant by using poison baits and sprays, but
from what I've read they no sooner are
destroyed in one place than they start up
in another. Today they have invaded
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, South Carolina and parts of
North Carolina and they are still moving
north. Luckily they will never reach Long
Island because of the cold weather.
Most ants have a common lifestyle
somewhat like our honeybees. There is a
queen that on the average can lay over
2,000 eggs per day. A colony can have as
many as 500,000 workers foraging for
food as far away as 100 feet from the
nest. Just knowing those simple facts
gives you some idea of how pesky these
fire ants can be, especially in a retirement
community where homes are so close to
one another. The age -old problem comes
up that one property owner does a good
job of keeping the ants under control and
his neighbor does nothing and therefore
everyone suffers. Right now we have a
new colony . under our doormat to the
camper. Tomorrow it gets the standard
treatment of sprinkling poison bait in
hopes that it will take it back into the
brood. Let's hope it works.
Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stot.tenburgh
BOAT-TAILED GRACKLE —This long- tailed "blackbird" of the south has
moved up our eastern seaboard as far north as New Jersey. Lately it has even
been reported on western Long Island, but in no great numbers.
■ _t9— * —a– M-2–
AM a UUUA noun
75 Years Ago
Nov. 24, 1922
Shelter Island News: The question of more space
for the schoolchildren has come up again as the schoolhouse
is crowded. It seems best at present to hire a large room in a
nearby house and place one of the grammar grades in that
room. A good -size room with southern exposure in the H.K.
Hosley house has been discussed; portable desks could be
secured and the room made comfortable in cold weather.
From Clubhouse to Hotel: Several important
changes are contemplated in the near future at Nassau Point.
One of the most important is the alteration of the building
now used as the clubhouse into a hotel. It is estimated that
the sum of about twenty -five thousand dollars will be
expended in this work, and that when completed the former
clubhouse will be a very attractive hotel in every way.
50 Years Ago
Nov. 28, 1947
Interesting Bits of Local News: You are invited
without obligation to drop in and see the large selection of
various Christmas gifts for young and old at prices you want
to pay. Home of Dot Hulse, 212 Fifth Ave., Greenport.
In the October issue of the magazine The New Yorker was a
reprint from The Suffolk Times of a story written by Clarence
Wood of a musical at Paradise Woods Studio under the person-
nature's creatures, are always on the alert.
Those who are careless and pay little
attention pay with their lives. No hawk is
seen.
Fire Ants All Around
When Barbara and I were pho-
tographing an armadillo coming out of
his den, we stood for some time in the
same spot trying not to disturb him in
hopes of getting a picture. When we were
finished photographing, Barbara looked
down and, to and behold, she had been
standing on a fire ant nest and they were
crawling up her shoes and socks.
Needless to say, she was swinging and
jumping around to remove those pesky
imported ants from South America before
al direction of Mrs. Ruth Langlois Hubbard. The article was
headed "Greenport, L.I., Gets Something More Than Bread."
New Officers: The Companions of the Forest of
Greenport were host to about one hundred members from
Riverhead, Bay Shore, Sag Harbor, Bellport, Patchogue and
Northport at a most delicious turkey dinner on Nov. 20. After
dinner, their meeting was held and officers were installed.
25 Years Ago
Nov. 30, 1972
Local News: Did anyone else see that red pickup truck
going to New Suffolk recently with a bear sitting in the back?
That's right, you weren't seeing things. It was none other
than Vincent Wieczorek bringing home his catch after a hunt-
ing trip — a 250 -pound bear.
Tax Map Hearing Set: A tax map showing every
parcel of taxable land in Greenport Village will be unveiled
Dec. 5 at the Village Hall in the first of a series of pubic hear-
ings on the countywide mapping project. It will be the first
accurate map in Greenport and should assist local assessors
in making reappraisals.
The program, which when completed will map tax lands in
the 29 villages and 10 towns of Suffolk, had been contracted
for under the old Board of Supervisors in 1969. Once the map
has been approved by local communities and the county, the
Real Property Tax Service Agency will keep it up to date.