We're outnumbered by ants and it's not even remotely close

In what will come as no surprise to Solano County residents, there are a lot of ants in the world.

A lot.

An estimated 20 quadrillion. Seriously. That's the estimate of the number of ants by a group of scientists from the University of Hong Kong (which locals presumably call UHK) in a paper on the subject recently released by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Here's how 20 quadrillion looks in digits: 20,000,000,000,000,000. That's 20,000 trillion, or more than the number of Wade brothers who have their columns published in the Daily Republic.

In the study, the scientists looked at nearly 500 studies. They concluded that the total mass of ants on Earth was 12 megatons of dry carbon, which is apparently how scientists measure animals' biomass.

Do you understand dry carbon megatons? Me neither, but here's how that was explained: If all the living ants were plucked from the ground and put on a scale, they would outweigh all the wild birds and mammals. Combined. Remember, blue whales are mammals. So are elephants and the person who sat in the middle seat next to you the last time you flew. Combined, all the mammals and birds on Earth weigh less than all the ants.

For anyone who has endured an invasion of ants – around this region, it seems to most frequently happen during a heat wave or during the rainiest times (or, frankly, anytime) – that number is high but not outrageous. Recently, Mrs. Brad and I endured a two-front war with the ants at Casa de Stanhope, as the bug invaded the kitchen and a bedroom. They just kept coming and coming, like a zombie apocalypse. We tried to kill the explorers, but it didn't matter. More ants explored, ultimately leading their six-legged friends on a march through our house.

I had a curious realization: The ants I'm most likely to personally kill (using my fingers to squash them) are the explorers. They're the Lewis and Clark ants who set out to determine where the rest of their community should go. Once the mass of ants comes, it's overwhelming and I either spray them or we put out poison they allegedly take back to their colony.

But I respect the hustle of the Lewis and Clark ants (by the way, I call them that not because of 19th-century explorers Lewis and Clark, but after Darren Lewis and Will Clark, two mainstays of the late-1980s Giants). Really, my vengeance should be targeted against the zombies who follow them and swarm our garbage can or anything left on a counter.

But back to the ant census. While 20 quadrillion ants or 12 megatons of dry carbon are obviously huge numbers, they don't really mean anything to us. A better way was presented in their study: There are 2.5 million ants for every person on earth.

Two point five million per person. That means you can multiply the number of people in your household by 2.5 million and . . . realize you're fighting a losing battle.

The realization that we're outnumbered (and by outnumbered, I mean it's not even close) is offset by the recognition that ants perform a valuable service. They aerate the ground. They pull seeds underground, where they can sprout. They eat dead wood in forests to keep those areas healthy. They serve as food for countless other animals.

Ants form the backbone of Earth. It's worth remembering.

Because even if it weren't true, we're not winning this war. The ants have us outnumbered.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.