Imagine you’re carrying a horse with your mouth, you’ve got a butt the size of the continental shelf, and you’re navigating a ten-mile, boulder-strewn trail by smell. That’s the lowly ant’s fate. Ant backpacks, fashioned out of silkworm cocoons and spider webs by the dexterous fingers of bag ladies (not tailor ants), are guaranteed to ease ant burdens. The tiny knapsacks are woven of strong, lightweight silk and come with two pairs of shoulder straps to distribute the load.

Also available is a micro-parachute folded in the backpack for winged ants in case of collisions during swarming. Other products are a twined, silk rope for climbing steep anthills, a woven hose for fire ants and a horsefly harness for harvest ants on ant farms.
-- FarmerJohn, Jul 13 2002

Ant Backpack http://www.fabric8....uct.f8ml?PID=AN0108
(For people) [DrCurry, Jul 14 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]

I'm all for interaction with advanced intelligent life.
-- postseti, Jul 13 2002


Given that an ant can carry a house (human scale) in its mouth, what the f*** does it need backpack for?
-- DrCurry, Jul 14 2002


Well, some ant has to carry the furniture, doesn't it?
-- phoenix, Jul 14 2002


They wouldn't be able to fit in little tiny gaps and tunnels with these on. And then the wasps and spiders would see them, and start demanding their own. Before long the world's entire fabric industry would be devoted to manufacturing panniers for dung beetles to put over their poo-balls. Pregnancy smocks for aphids. Ponchos for ticks. And who knows what further lunacy? Stop now, before your granny strains her eyes to the point of blindness knitting millipede booties!
-- pottedstu, Jul 15 2002


Give them an inch, they'll take a mile...

Next they'll want an ant gas masks to shield them from bug sprays.

Then they'll want armo(u)r similar to the Small Dog Security Armo(u)r to prevent them from being squished.

And then you would wonder why ants took over the world...

Although, to prevent the ants takeover, you could supply equipment to beetles, flies, mosquitoes and all the other bugs for protection. The bug arms race has begun, and with the trillions of bugs out there, this could be quite profitable, if they used cash that is.
-- dag, Jul 18 2002



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