Although the protagonist doesn't know about zombie ants, he doesn't know what kind of creatures are parasitic on these ants.
He just intuitively felt that these strange parasitic ants were related to a series of previous anomalies in "Dongyang City".
But at least one thing he was sure of - these strange parasitic ants were hostile to "Dongyang City".
That's why the parasitic worker ant last time attacked the protagonist crazily after smelling his scent.
After the protagonist recovers from his injuries, he is eager to set out again, targeting the hills where the parasitic ants were last found.
This time, he wants to capture a prisoner and then learn about these mysterious ants through the prisoner. To use the professional terminology of the People's Liberation Army, this is called "tongue grabbing".
This time the protagonist does not plan to act alone.
The hills are far away from "Dongyang City". Although Xiaoqing only needs to fly for five minutes, it would take the ants five hours to walk, and they may encounter obstacles and dangers along the way.
So the protagonist decided to set off with only flying knights, and the number of knights should not be too many, so as not to alert the enemy.
Finally, the protagonist selected two young male ants who performed best in flight training to act with him.
In order to facilitate identification, the protagonist named them "A Fei" and "A Xiang".
That morning, the protagonist took A Fei and A Xiang, rode their mounts into the sky, turned to the south and flew quickly.
The protagonist's mount is still Xiao Qing with red eyes and green shell. In the last operation, although Xiaoqing was entangled in spider webs, he was not injured. After a few days of recuperation, he is now in good condition.
The mounts of A Fei and A Xiang are ordinary black and gray house flies, and their bodies are slightly smaller than Xiao Qing's.
The three flying knights headed south, and the protagonist quickly found the hills with the guidance of his memory.
The protagonist skillfully landed on the bush where he last encountered a spider with his two subordinates.
Before landing this time, the protagonist carefully checked the landing site to ensure that there were no threats such as spiders or praying mantises.
After landing on the leaves of the shrub, the protagonist first went to see the last battlefield.
The broken spider web was still fluttering in the breeze, but the spider's body was gone. There was a hole in the spider web where the body had been for some reason, and the spider body probably fell from here.
The protagonist did not find the shadow of parasitic ants on the top of the shrub, so the protagonist asked A Fei to look at three flies on the leaves, and he and A Xiang slowly climbed down along the main trunk of the shrub.
After climbing for a short distance, the protagonist discovered the goal of this trip with his excellent eyesight.
Seven parasitized worker ants are busy on the tree trunk, grazing.
The objects being grazed are not the aphids that the protagonist is familiar with, but an ugly gray bug. This small insect is similar in size to an aphid, but has horizontal stripes on its carapace, and numerous tentacle-like soft tentacles growing on the edges of its back.
If aphids are like transparent emeralds, these bugs are like inconspicuous gravel.
The protagonist is curious about what the parasitic ants are doing grazing these ugly little bugs.
But it soon dawned on him when he saw that these bugs also secrete fluid for the grazing ants to suck.
In fact, these small bugs are called scale insects, which are agricultural pests that often damage leaves, branches and fruits and have strong reproductive power. Female scale insects excrete honeydew from their vaginas like aphids, thereby attracting ants to suck them and allowing the ants to protect themselves.
The parasitic worker ants are grazing these little bugs dutifully, and they all have three silk threads on their backs.
These threads ignored the numerous scale insects on the side, perhaps knowing that these insects were too small to serve as hosts.
The protagonist put these scale insects aside for the time being. Although "Dongyang City" currently has a shortage of honeydew due to breeding and training flies, today's main target is not them.
The protagonist stared closely at the seven grazing ants. This number was quite large, and the protagonist did not dare to ensure that he would not get tangled in silk threads when facing so many parasitic worker ants.
You must find a way to lure out one or two lone worker ants.
The protagonist thought for a while and had no clue at the moment.
At this time, a herding worker ant seemed to have drunk enough honeydew, and crawled back to the ground with her huge, almost translucent belly.
The protagonist's eyes light up, then wait until these ants drink up and go away, and then eat them again when there are only one or two left.
But reality quickly slapped the protagonist in the face.
As soon as the drunk parasitic worker ant left, three more workers with deflated stomachs crawled over and added to the herding team.
Now, the number of grazing ants increased instead of decreasing, and there were nine.
The protagonist had no choice but to continue to wait patiently. After about half an hour, the grazing ants came in and out, and finally there were five.
The protagonist feels that he cannot wait any longer. This is the time when the ants are grazing the least since the protagonist arrived.
So the protagonist asked Axiang to stand by and quietly touched it.
Relying on his eyesight that is far superior to that of ordinary ants, the protagonist uses the raised obstacles on the bark of the tree to quietly approach the parasitic worker ants at a very close distance.
At this distance, normal worker ants will already pay attention to the moving creatures, and the protagonist can no longer move forward rashly.
Just as the protagonist touched it, there was one more grazing ant, making it six.
The protagonist thought for a moment and pulled out a small piece of bark from under his body. He hooked one hand into the bark of the tree and carefully aimed at a worker ant that was slightly away from the team.
With a "swish", the protagonist aimed and threw the bark, hitting the target's head.
Although the protagonist threw it with great force, the weight of the bark was too light, and it only knocked the parasitic worker ant staggering.
The worker ant raised its head blankly and looked around vigilantly, but saw nothing.
"Whoosh", the second piece of bark thrown by the protagonist also hit her on the head. With a distance of just ten centimeters, the protagonist will not miss at all.
At this time, the parasitic worker ant became frightened and fled to the ground in a panic, completely ignoring its companions not far away.
This is a protective instinct of ants. When the protagonist was a naughty boy, he liked to use grass stalks to stir up ants on the ground. He found that this time when the ants encountered an incomprehensible attack (the teasing of the grass stems), they would run away and did not even have time to warn nearby companions to be careful.
But the protagonist's goal was not achieved. He originally expected the parasitic worker ant to run in his direction in a panic, and then capture it alive and take it back.
The protagonist then chooses another parasitic worker ant and repeats the same trick.
As a result, the worker ant also fled to the ground. It seems that when ants escape, they instinctively flee towards the nest, which makes the protagonist's wishful thinking come to nothing!
what can we do about it?
