Update, 10/13/24

10/15/24;

11:33 AM:



The ants have shown an interest in the paste, which has dried somewhat. But not the species of ant that was expected. Instead, there are at least 2 other species of ants besides the ones targeted--which are all over the paste. The ones targeted are bigger ants. The smaller ants are the ones interested in the paste. The liquid part has also lost water, and is like a jello mixture. Still has no interest from the ants.



I'm going to think this is a hackberry tree of a local species to this area until proven otherwise. It's is clearly different from the hackberry trees featured on the YouTube, but these have too many features that check the boxes of hackberry to not be hackberry. So there.

8:18 AM

The ants are sluggish this morning. Temperature has cooled to the low 50's. A poke of the stick will usually get ants moving around pretty good, but that didn't happen. The cooler weather has them sluggish, I suspect. There's no ant activity around the paste, but there was a relatively larger beetle scarfing it down.

The liquid part has no activity at all. I was expecting the sugar type ants to be especially interested. This is a bit of a surprise.

So far, just the beetles. I'll check again later today.

I checked the YouTube for positive identification of the theorized hackberry trees. It checks out on the leaves and on the bark. The berries are a bit different, though. They are a greenish yellow. Or yellow green. They do appear to be somewhat larger than in the videos, but this is Texas. The videos were on the other side of the Missisippi. But they are not desert hackberries, either.



10/14/24:

So I bought a mortar and pestle. It is to grind the berries down like the natives did long ago. Once I got home, I went to work right away. I collected some berries, and placed them inside and attempted to grind them down. The pits are very, very hard. There wasn't much success at getting much of a paste.

After tiring of this, I placed a good number of them into the blender. After grinding them in the blender for a minute or so, I had a liquid paste. There still was a good number of chunks in it. I proceeded to filter out the water, and got a liquid part, and a thicker paste part.

There was never any intention to eat any of this. But it may be useful in attracting ants. So I took the paste and the liquid, and set them outside. If ants are attracted to this, I find out soon enough.

Discussion of the results will come later.



10/13/24: Next step will be to buy something, of course. I think I'll buy a mortar and pestle from Walmart the next time I go by there. Not much to report, but it is what it is.