Pissant [fauna report]

[Buchmann]

    In case anyone is interested, I had not seen one of these critters in years,
and, mirabile dictu, I just caught one coming through my bathroom screen!
A red letter day ? Or merely synchronisity ?

Buchmann wrote:

>    "Piss ants" [ also known as "grease ants"] were common in the American South,
> at least before the advent of Fire Ants [ which have made life difficult for many of
> their cousins ]. Farmers, hunters, fishermen, etc., who frequently urinated outdoors,
> saw them often. They arrived in large numbers, following a trail, but were VERY
> tiny individuals. [ One also saw them in kitchens, where they were called "grease
> ants."] They were not much of a biting threat, hence TOO INSIGNIFICANT TO
> BE WORRIED ABOUT even though there were very many of them.
>
> Mark Odegard wrote:
> > Following up one the 'communal peeing' thread, it occurs to me the German
> > authors of that article might have been (?[un]consciously] echoing 'pissant'.