A SHORT STORY: Overpopulation in Antares

"General Antonopoulos I'm afraid the situation has deteriorated," reported Colonel Antasari, “Still no rain, for the sixth straight month - the entire ant population is starting to feel the effects; our colony is the only outpost that still has food and water reserves - thanks your savvy choice of location.” General Antonopoulos would have broken a prideful smirk, had the situation not been so dire. “How long will our supplies last?” asked Antonopoulos. Antasari rolled his eyes toward to the earthy ceiling as he did some mental arithmetic, "I estimate one months worth." General Antonopoulos shoulders' slumped as the gravity of Antasari's estimate hit home. Antonopoulos had been the leader of the Antares Ant Colony for the last five years and this was by far the greatest threat the colony had faced. "This is a matter for the Ant-hedrin (a gathering of the colony's leadership)," concluded Antonopoulos.

“...members of the Ant-hedrin, I bring before you a most dire matter. We are confronted by the worst drought in living memory. My scouts report that the upper world is dry and desolate. We are indeed more fortunate than other colonies, in that we still have food and water reserves! However, we cannot count on that; We compete with the humans and their beasts." Antonopoulos paused, "In addition we can expect an invasion from the other ailing colonies - Red Ants from the North, Termites from the East, Locusts from the South and Harvester and Acrobat colonies from the West."

"My concerns are two-fold," Antonopoulos paused again ensuring he had everyone's attention, "Firstly, the impending onslaughts from our neighbours and not least of all our level of over-population. We now number in excess of 20 trillion members in our own colony. To these issues, we must give our greatest attention,” presented an impassioned Antonopoulos.

Image Source:
A Look of shock as Antasari is confronted with 20 trillion members

At first the Ant-hedrin and those collected in the Antdrome, responded with shocked silence. Soon the Antdrome filled with a deafening amount of conversation within conversations.

“Silence...Silence”, Antipope - the head clergy tried to get everyone’s attention, “This is trying times. Times that will test our collective faith," she opened up as he got everyone’s attention. “I shall bring up this matter with the senate of the congregation and we shall launch a prayer campaign,” she promised as she again took her seat.

Antonopoulos again addressed those present, this time with a smidgen of uneasiness, "Er... Er members,” finally gaining the courage, “We are going to have to channel the remaining food and water reserves to our defensive forces,” his statement was counted with a tumultuous uproar. Head of the opposition interjected, "THAT IS ANTICIDE, ANTONOPOULOS!! Starving our masses is ANTICIDE! “WE HAVE NO CHOICE!” responded Antonopoulos, “EITHER WE HAVE STRONG DEFENDERS OR OUR ENEMIES WILL RUN RIOT IN OUR TUNNELS! - I SUGGEST EVERY ABLE-BODIED MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD JOIN THE DEFENSIVE INITIATIVE!” There was a deafening silence as Antonopoulos drove home his point.

“I’m concerned by the population size...,” weighed in Antagonis the chairperson of the Ant-hedrin, “...50% of all our resources, go exclusively to maintaining the colony. This needs our urgent attention, it’s unsustainable - 20 trillion is simply not sustainable,” he reiterated. "I will have to appoint Antithesis, our head researcher to investigate the following matters," which he read from notes he had scribbled down.
"The effects of over-population on the community;"
"Determine a suitable population size;"
"Methods for cultivation alternative food sources;"
"A strategy for recycling water and water storage;"
"Countering the dramatically overheating in our tunnels due to extreme ant activity;"
"Sustainable methods of expanding our territories;"
"Effectively dealing with ant waste;"

“Do we have the consensus for the research?” asked Antogonis. There was a unanimous nodding of heads!

When it came to his turn to address those present, Antisepsis, Head of medical central raised the following issues, “From our side we will immediately, launch a family planning initiative...” he opened his presentation. “...however, there is much more we can do,” he added, “We should “abort” our entire crop of ant larvae,” A campaign which he promoted whenever he had the opportunity, a stance which made him extremely unpopular with the anti-antbortionists. He continued, “We should give aging and ailing members of our population the opportunity to euthanise.” Antisepsis, returned to his seat under a hail of boos. Antogonis gave him a reluctant nod of approval.

The Ant-hedrin adjourned with each ant duly informed of their grave situation and well aware of their individual responsibilities ahead.

"Report please," growled Antonopoulos, as sleep deprivation was taking its toll. “We are completely surrounded by the foes as you have correctly predicted,” Antasari reported, “I think tomorrow will be D-day!” A frown of concern fractured Antonopoulos face, as he tried to scan his intuition for their state of readiness. “One more thing...” Antasari slipped into the report, “AWS (Ant Weather Services) is predicting some rain this evening, and it looks like a biggie.” Antonopoulos dismissed Antasari, "Thank-you, keep me posted!”

“Run, run for your lives,” shouted Anton, the tunnel services technician, “We can’t hold up the tunnels any longer...the floods are collapsing the tunnels...run, save yourselves.” Many ants died in their sleep that night, crushed under weight of the collapsing tunnels. Those that made it out of the tunnels were slept away in the torrents, never to be seen again. General Antonopoulos never made it out of his command center where he drowned.

When, the sun rose the next morning, Antasari looked down upon the devastation before him; in disbelief. He had been up in a nearby tree, doing reconnaissance work, when the flash flood hit the colony. Fifteen trillion ants lost their lives in the tragic event. They had come so close to controlling the population size and they would have easily overcome their foes, too.

Colonel Antasari was now the new leader of Antares Ant Colony. He now had the responsibility of rebuilding it much smarter way; with better defenses and with population size in mind.

They thought they had found the solution to overpopulation, but Nature in her own wisdom always knows best…