On Saturday 11 March 2023, Iimbovane took a group of eager Eco Rangers from the Helderberg area on an adventure of on ants.

The adventure started a week earlier when the topic of their weekly get-together session was all about ‘ants’ and their ecology. The session, led by organizer / educator of Helderberg Eco-Rangers, Wendy June Coke Norris, turned into a ‘tasty affair’ for the ants when the Rangers set up a small picnic sites for the ants.

Baits of different types of foods were used and after observing the ants for a few minutes, the Rangers found that raw eggs were the ants’ favourite food. The Rangers further noticed that different types of ants visited the baits, which led them to Iimbovane.

The Iimbovane team welcomed 17 Eco Rangers and their parents on a rainy Saturday and the group immediately set off for the laboratory. The purpose of the day was to teach the Eco Rangers how myrmecologists distinguish between different types of ants.

It started off with the Iimbovane team introducing the Rangers to the different body parts of an ant and how to follow the clues on the scientific key. Using the tweezer to move the ant while looking through the microscope, proved a challenge and tested the eye-hand coordination of the Rangers and their parents. But after a few minutes, the Rangers got the hang of it and could easily place the ant in the correct position. Both Rangers and their parents were amazed at how much detail they could see through the microscope and how the features of an ant’s body lead them to the name of the ant.

But the adventure didn’t end there  ̶  Iimbovane also showed the Rangers how to carefully pin an ant and after trying a few times and some sticky fingers, the Rangers managed to pin a few ants. This activity caused for a lot of excitement, and everyone proudly showed off their pinned ants.

The day finished with a visit to the Iimbovane lab where the Rangers could see the Iimbovane reference collection and its trays of pinned ants.

Thank you to Dorette and Londi for an exciting day exploring and learning about Ants. It was a perfect outing to reinforce what the children have learned this term about ants and I really liked that you took them deeper into how to ID an ant.  Working with the microscopes opened up a whole new world in a micro level.  And pinning ants was something new for all these children.  I must say it was quite fiddly and yet they all did really well.