As the war between the ant-hunting coalition and the parasitic ants becomes increasingly tense, the protagonist is also working hard on his plan to completely eliminate the parasitic ants.
Not far east of [Dongyang City], near the edge of the lake, a large number of ants suddenly appeared starting last autumn.
These ants quickly built a new nest here, which is the lakeshore base named [Great Lake City] by the protagonist.
The current only mission of this sub-nest is to build ships that can be used by the Angel King's legion to go to the swamp area. In the future, this place will also serve as the naval base of the Angel King's Legion and the starting base for the expedition against parasitic ants in the swamp area.
The location of [Great Lake City] is very particular. Although it is close to the shore of the lake where the waves are crashing, the terrain is relatively high. It is built on a mound several meters above the lake level. Even if a major flood occurs, it will not be easily threatened. This lair.
Under the sloping slope on the east side of the mound where [Great Lake City] is located, there is a small bay on the shore of the lake.
The area of this small bay is only the size of a four-person dining table in the human world, and it is connected to the big lake only by a gap of about one meter. To humans, this is a small pool connected to the lake.
Outside the mouth of the small bay, there are several rocks protruding out of the water, protecting the bay like breakwaters and blocking the influx of wind, rain and waves.
As an inland lake, the currents in the Great Lakes are not very intense, with only small, moderate waves caused by the wind. In the small bay, it is even calmer, like a stagnant puddle, where some water spiders and other insects that like still water live here.
Such calm inlets and sloping slopes are also perfect places for berthing and building boats.
The calm seas ensure the safety of ships anchored here, making it an excellent harbor, while the slope makes it easier to launch ships built on land and is also a suitable site for shipyards.
After an initial attempt last fall, the protagonist decided to build a batch of walnut ships for the Angel King's Legion. The reason for choosing walnut boats is not only due to practicality and technical difficulty, but also due to local conditions.
Not far from [Great Lake City], there is a walnut forest with dozens of walnut trees growing together.
In the past, the walnuts produced in this walnut tree were also a favorite food of ants after they cracked naturally. But now, they have a more important mission.
Last fall, workers in [Great Lake City] were preparing to build boats this spring.
In the past, ants did not rely heavily on walnuts as food. The way they used walnuts was to wait for the walnuts under the tree to naturally crack or be eaten by other insects, and then use the walnut meat inside as food. They would never deliberately Go and collect walnuts.
But last winter, the ants worked hard to carry twenty or thirty large and round walnuts to the sandy land not far from the lake shore, and then completely covered them with gravel and buried them.
After a winter, these buried walnuts are almost dry and have not been eaten by insects. These walnuts are the raw materials for shipbuilding.
After the protagonist came to [Great Lake City] to stay temporarily, the shipbuilding work officially began. The worker ants who had received the protagonist's information package began to build the ship bit by bit under the command of the big worker ant.
The first step is to remove the outer layer of skin from the walnut.
When the walnut is not fully mature, its outer skin is commonly known as "green skin" and is closely connected to the walnut shell as the endocarp. It is very laborious to remove the outer skin at this time. I believe anyone who has played Wenwan Walnut "Betting on Green Skin" will be impressed.
But after the walnut is fully mature, the inner and outer peels naturally separate, and are only partially connected at the top.
The walnuts collected by the ants last fall were all naturally mature and fell to the ground, with the inner and outer skins basically separated. The remaining connected part has basically separated after a winter of sand storage. The few that stubbornly refused to separate were unable to resist the cutting of the ants' copper jaw knives.
After obtaining the complete walnut shell, the ants ushered in the most difficult step of the process - drilling an entrance and exit in the hard walnut shell.
The walnuts in the walnut forest next to [Great Lake City] are not the thin-skinned walnuts intentionally cultivated by humans, nor are they the hemp walnuts with distinctive texture like Wenwan walnuts, but round ones with shallow ravines, but very thick shells A kind of walnut.
The thick walnut shell can give future walnut boats a stronger hull, but it is also a "stumbling block" for ants who need to drill holes in the walnuts.
There is no way to simply make walnuts crack. As long as the walnuts are provided with appropriate temperature and humidity, the walnuts will naturally crack and germinate.
But in this way, these walnuts with large cracks and sharply reduced solidity cannot be used as qualified transportation vehicles.
Only ungerminated, closed and intact walnuts can be used as raw materials for making walnut boats.
The ants began to drill holes in the eyes of the walnut buds, which is where the walnuts sprout and the weakest part of the entire walnut shell.
But even the weakest point cannot be cut and moved by the ants' jaws, even with a copper jaw knife.
Fortunately, there is an insect that can help ants, and that is mealworms that ants raise in large numbers.
Mealworms have complex feeding habits and eat almost anything, including their teeth. Mealworms raised by humans will often be chewed up if they are made of wood, paper or even plastic or rubber.
The protagonist took full advantage of this and asked the ants to smear aphid honeydew on the eyes of the walnut buds, and then put mealworms to eat. By continuously applying honeydew to the designated area and constantly replacing the mealworms, the bud eyes of the walnuts are being hollowed out little by little at a pace that is imperceptible to the naked eye. This process takes about a week.
After the bud eyes are hollowed out, the next step is easier. The walnut boat construction enters the third step of internal cleaning.
The ants will gnaw off the walnut meat little by little and take it back to the nest to store it as food, just like they usually do foraging.
The natural separation between the walnut meat and the dura mater has been preserved. The walnut shell and the dura mater divide the interior of the walnut into several independent and connected spaces, similar to the cells in an ant nest, which can save the construction of internal structures. .
Later, the ants will use ant glue to smear the inside of the joint between the two half-shells of the walnut to prevent the walnut ship from naturally cracking along the seam over time.
At this point, a walnut boat is roughly completed.
The protagonist took the first walnut boat on a trial trip in a harbor where the water flow was stagnant, and found that the effect was good. This boat could indeed carry a lot of ants, and it would not sink in water.
But this only has some of the functions of a ship. The ants still have to modify the walnut boat to make it a real boat.
