The Great Ant Attack Read online

  Contents

  Chapter One: The Balance of Nature

  Chapter Two: One of Our Ants Is Missing

  Chapter Three: Great Day for a Picnic

  Chapter Four: Early Warning

  Chapter Five: A Short Course in Ant Science

  Chapter Six: To the Tower!

  Chapter Seven: Never Fear! Dr. Smythe-Jones Is Here!

  Chapter Eight: Emergency Powers

  Chapter Nine: Two Close Calls

  Chapter Ten: A Closer Look

  Chapter Eleven: Countdown!

  Chapter Twelve: Help for the Bens

  Excerpt from The Berenstain Bears Ride Like the Wind

  Back Ad

  About the Authors

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Chapter One

  The Balance of Nature

  “How about if we go to a movie tonight? There’s a terrific film playing at the Beartown multiplex,” said Brother Bear one evening as the Bear family was having supper.

  “We might just do that,” said Papa. “What’s this terrific film called?”

  “It’s called Giant Insects from Outer Space,” said Brother.

  “Well, you can count me out,” said Sister, who had a problem with insects.

  “That’s okay,” said Brother. “You can take in another film. They always have a G-rated film for scaredy-bears.”

  “All right, then, Mr. Smart-face. You can count me in!” said Sister.

  So the Bear family cleaned up the supper things and went to see Giant Insects from Outer Space. It was about these giant insects who came in spaceships to attack Earth. They were as big as school buses and looked like a cross between a cockroach and an ant, with a little rhinoceros beetle thrown in.

  It was a very scary movie!

  Sister was proud of getting through it (she did so by covering her eyes during the scariest parts). And she was proud of getting through the night without having a movie nightmare.

  But just outside of town, not more than a mile away from the Bear family’s tree house, a certain professor and his genius nephew were in their laboratory working on a secret experiment that just might turn into a real living nightmare.

  The next afternoon, the Bear family was sitting around the tree house living room relaxing. Brother was playing a hand-held monster game. Papa was reading the newspaper. Mama was looking through a garden magazine. And Sister was thinking about Giant Insects from Outer Space. As she sat there thinking about one of the scarier parts, a small spider let itself down on a strand of silk right in front of her face.

  “YIPE!” screamed Sister, sending the frightened spider scurrying back up the strand of silk.

  “My goodness,” said Papa. “There’s no need to be afraid of spiders. Spiders have more reason to be afraid of you than you have to be afraid of them.”

  “I’m not afraid of them,” said Sister. “I just don’t like them.”

  Papa went back to reading his newspaper and Sister went back to thinking about Giant Insects from Outer Space. After thinking awhile, she said, “Papa?”

  “Yes, dear,” said Papa.

  “Why do there have to be insects?”

  “I’m not sure I understand your question, my dear,” said Papa.

  “Well, I just mean why do there have to be insects? They’re so buggy and icky. I mean like creepy spiders and itchy mosquitoes and those nasty green flies that bite. I mean, what good are they? Why do we have to have them?”

  “That’s a very interesting question,” said Papa. “And I suppose the best answer is that they’re all part of nature’s great scheme. All those icky, buggy creatures, all creatures and plants, in fact, and even the Earth itself, make up what’s called the balance of nature.”

  “That’s right,” said Brother. “That’s what Teacher Bob says. We learned about that in biology. He says that if the bees and the butterflies didn’t carry pollen from plant to plant, we wouldn’t have fruits and vegetables.”

  “Or flowers,” said Mama, looking up from her gardening magazine. “And I might add, if there were no mosquitoes, dragonflies, and water bugs for the trout to eat, we wouldn’t be having honey-cured trout for supper tonight.”

  “Yum!” said Brother.

  “Thank goodness for the balance of nature,” said Papa. Which was all very well, but Sister still had a problem with insects.

  Sister Bear wasn’t the only one who had a problem with insects. Farmer Ben, whose farm was just down the road from the Bear family’s tree house, had a big problem with insects. Especially with the ones that ate his crops. The mere mention of the corn borer, the wheat worm, or the barley moth sent Farmer Ben into a fury. While Farmer Ben had a good heart, he also had a terrible temper. Just the mention of those insects made him wave his arms, jump up and down, and say words that burnt the very air.

  If the Bear family had looked out a window that afternoon, they would have seen Farmer Ben doing just that. He was with Crop Duster Joe. They were at the place where Ben’s corn, wheat, and barley fields met. Joe had the same argument with Ben every year. He was waiting for Ben to calm down so he could tell him the same thing he had told him the year before and the year before that. “I can’t use anything stronger, Ben. It’s against the law. I can only dust with approved chemicals, and DDT isn’t approved. Try to understand. All the environmental folks are trying to do is preserve the balance of nature. And besides, if I used DDT, I could lose my license.”

  “Well, dang your license! Dang the balance of nature!”

  Mrs. Ben, the only one who could calm Ben down when he was in a temper, had heard the ruckus all the way from the farm-house. “Now, come on, Ben. It doesn’t do any good to rant and rave. Come on back to the house. I’ve got some warm milk with a dash of strawberry honey waiting for you. And, Joe…”

  “Yes, ma’am?”

  “You just dust the crops the same as you did last year.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Chapter Two

  One of Our Ants Is Missing

  Meanwhile, that certain professor (it was Professor Actual Factual) and his genius nephew (it was Ferdy Factual) had just discovered that one of their ants was missing. Normally, a missing ant wouldn’t be of great concern. But this was no ordinary ant. It was a super-ant. At least that’s what the professor and his nephew were calling the new species they had developed in their laboratory at the Bearsonian Institution.

  “Look, Uncle!” said Ferdy. “That super-ant has eaten its way right through the ant-proof cage!”

  “Why, bless my spectacles! So it has! Tell me, Nephew,” said the professor, “was it one of our winged specimens?”

  “Yes, Uncle,” said Ferdy, “I’m afraid it was. Could that be a problem?”

  “Hmm,” said the professor. “Well, it’s worth thinking about. The fact that it was winged means we are looking at two possibilities. Possibility one: it was a male. In which case, no harm done. It will forage briefly, then expire. Possibility two—and this is a little more worrisome—it was a queen. But while she may lay eggs and even have a few hatch out, no real harm will be done, because without the support of a colony, she and her offspring will soon die.”

  Now, Ferdy was no more a mind reader than you and I, but he saw a cloud of concern pass over his uncle’s face and knew that another possibility had just occurred to him. “What is it, Uncle?” he asked. “Is there a possibility three?”

  “Yes,” said Actual Factual with a nervous chuckle. “But it’s so far-fetched that I refuse even to discuss it.”

  “If you say so, Unc,” said Ferdy. “But don’t you think we should check ant security? We wouldn’t want any more to escape.”

  “Good thinking. Good think
ing.”

  Chapter Three

  Great Day for a Picnic

  The balance of nature looked fine and dandy a couple of days later when the Bear family decided to go on a picnic. The grass was still green, the bees were still buzzing, the woodpeckers were still pecking, and all was right with the world. Or at least so it seemed to the Bear family as they headed for their favorite picnic spot, the beautiful meadow just south of Bear Country’s most important museum: the Bearsonian Institution.

  Brother and Sister had brought friends along. They were Cousin Fred, who was a cousin as well as a friend, and Babs Bruno, who happened to be the daughter of Beartown’s chief of police. The cubs got to the meadow ahead of Mama and Papa, who were carrying big baskets of picnic goodies, so they got to choose the picnic spot. It was such a hot day that they chose a spot beside a big rock so they would have some shade as the day wore on.

  “Is this spot okay?” asked Sister as Papa unfolded the big red-and-white-checked tablecloth they always used for picnics.

  “Just fine,” said Papa as he shook out the tablecloth and settled it down on the grass. “What a great day for a picnic!” he said. “Just look at that beautiful blue sky. Just breathe in that air.”

  “We’re hungry! When do we eat?” cried Brother and Sister, jumping up and down. Cousin Fred and Babs Bruno were hungry, too. But they were too polite to shout and jump up and down.

  “Now, just calm down. We’ll eat when I say so,” said Mama. “I want to rest up a bit after that long walk.”

  “Good thinking, Mama,” said Papa. “You sit in the shade while the cubs and I put out the spread.”

  And what a spread it was! There was honey-cured trout, French-fried honeycomb, home-baked bread, lettuce and tomatoes from Mama’s garden, potato salad with pine nuts, two thermoses of cold milk, a big jar of Papa’s favorite homemade pickles, and for dessert, chocolate cake and cherry pie! And there were plenty of sturdy paper picnic things to serve it on and eat with.

  “No sneaking tastes, please,” said Papa when he saw Brother getting ready to scoop up a finger-load of icing from the chocolate cake. Brother returned the favor a little later when he caught Papa green-handed sneaking a crunchy bite of pickle.

  “I can’t put it back in the jar,” said Papa with a guilty grin, “because I already bit it.”

  “Just put what’s left of it on your plate, my dear,” said Mama, “until we all sit down to our picnic lunch.”

  Finally, when Mama was fully satisfied with how the food was arranged and all six places were set out, the Bear family and their friends sat down to their picnic lunch. There were “yums” all around as the picnickers attacked those delicious picnic goodies. “Yums” for the trout, “yums” for the honeycomb, “yums” for the potato salad, and “yums” for the pickles. But they never got to “yums” for the chocolate cake or the cherry pie, because those “yums” suddenly turned into bloodcurdling “yows,” “yipes,” and “yips” as one after the other, the members of the picnic were bitten on their backsides.

  “Ants!” screamed the picnickers as they leaped up in pain. But they weren’t just ants. They were super-ants, and those super-ants were eating their lunch, paper plates and all.

  “Look at them,” cried Papa. “They’re huge!”

  The picnickers danced away from the picnic spread so as not to get bitten on their feet.

  “Those aren’t ordinary ants,” said Cousin Fred. “I think we’d better try to catch one. It may be some strange new kind of ant.”

  “I don’t know if that’s safe,” said Brother. “Look at what they’re doing to our lunch!” The chocolate cake and the cherry pie were disappearing before their eyes. “Look! One of them just went into the pickle jar. I think I can catch it!” said Brother, who was very fast on his feet—his soccer moves were famous. He leaped in, capped the jar, and leaped out.

  “There’s one on your foot!” cried Sister. She knocked it off before it could bite. The group stared at the captured ant. Not only was it large and powerful-looking, it had huge jaws. There had been one pickle left in the jar, and the ant had already eaten halfway through it. They could hear the crunching right through the glass jar.

  “Look!” cried Papa, pointing across the meadow. “There’s a whole army of ’em headed this way. Quick! Up on the rock!”

  Papa helped the cubs and Mama up onto the big rock, then climbed up after them. The army of ants was a frightening sight. It looked like a fast-moving ribbon of black velvet flowing over the ground. The bears huddled together on the big rock. They watched in amazement as the great ribbon of ants ate their entire picnic, divided, went around the rock, rejoined, and continued on its destructive way.

  “It’s like that giant insect movie,” said Sister.

  “It’s much worse,” said Brother. “Because this isn’t a movie!”

  “Oh, dear!” said Mama. “They’ve eaten my red-and-white-checked tablecloth!”

  “Hmm,” said Papa. “The only things they haven’t eaten are those two thermoses.”

  “What’s that funny smell?” asked Babs Bruno, sniffing the air. “Hey, it smells like…grape juice!”

  “How weird,” said Papa. “It does smell like grape juice. How’s our pickle jar ant doing?”

  “It’s finished the pickle,” said Fred. “Now it’s running around looking for more.”

  “I think it’s safe to get down off this rock now. You know something?” said Papa as he helped Mama down. “I think Cousin Fred is onto something. I think it may be some new kind of ant. We’re going to have to show this fellow to an expert—and it’s a lucky coincidence that our good friend Professor Actual Factual is available just across the meadow at the Bearsonian Institution.”

  Chapter Four

  Early Warning

  Of course, it wasn’t a coincidence at all.

  When the professor saw the ant in the pickle jar and heard about the great army of ants that ate just about everything in sight and smelled like grape juice, he fell into a chair as if the weight of the world had just dropped on him. Ferdy looked pretty worried, too.

  “What’s going on, Professor?” asked Papa. “What’s happening out there?”

  “I’m very much afraid,” said the professor, “that possibility three is happening.”

  “Possibility three? What’s possibility three?” asked Papa.

  “Possibility three,” said the professor in a low, trembling voice, “is a disaster of such epic proportions that it boggles the mind.”

  “Somebody get the professor a glass of water,” said Mama. “He looks a little sick.”

  “I am sick, dear lady—sick with guilt over the awful thing I have done. Oh, sorrow! Oh, grief! The work of a lifetime brought to naught because of the escape of a single ant.”

  “I don’t mean to argue with you, Professor,” said Papa. “But it’s not a single ant. It’s thousands of ants. Thousands and thousands of ’em chewing their way across Bear Country, devouring everything in their path. I saw ’em with my own eyes. I felt ’em with my own backside!”

  But the professor just moaned and groaned some more. “What have I done? What have I done?”

  “Please, Uncle,” said Ferdy. “Moaning and groaning isn’t going to help. You’ve got to get ahold of yourself. I think I may have figured out what you meant by ‘possibility three,’ and you’re right. We may be looking at a very serious situation. We know there’s at least one colony out there. But there could be more. Remember, this super-ant we’ve developed is a hybrid. We have no idea how fast it reproduces.”

  The professor squared his shoulders. “Sorry about my moment of weakness, friends,” he said. “But Ferdy is right. For the sake of our survival, we must assume the worst. First, let me thank you. It’s most fortunate that you brought us early warning of your encounter with the super-ant colony.”

  “It doesn’t feel so fortunate,” said Papa, rubbing his backside.

  “As Ferdy suggested, the nature of hybrids is very unpre
dictable. You have brought us one very important piece of information about the super-ant: its eating habits.”

  “Its habits are very simple, Professor,” said Papa. “It just eats everything in sight.”

  “It’s not quite that simple,” said the professor. “Let me ask you a couple of questions. First, you say that your group climbed up on a big rock for safety. Is that correct?”

  “Yes,” said Papa.

  “And the ants made no attempt to climb the rock to get at you?”

  “That’s right,” said Brother.

  “Next, you say the ants ate everything except two thermoses? Is that correct?”

  “That’s right,” said Mama.

  “What were they made of?”

  “I believe they were made of aluminum,” said Papa.

  “So what?” asked Sister. “What difference does it make?”

  “It makes a great deal of difference, I’m afraid,” said Actual Factual. “It means that this new kind of ant that my nephew and I have developed is pretty close to being an omnivore. That is, it can eat and digest organic material—all organic material!”

  “What the heck is organic material?” asked Brother.

  “It’s everything that’s alive or has ever been alive,” said the professor.

  “But that’s just about everything!” said Babs.

  “I’m afraid so,” said the professor. “Everything except rocks, metals, and other earth substances.” Professor Actual Factual was not only director of the Bearsonian Institution but also one of Bear Country’s greatest scientists. It took a lot to frighten him. But there was no question about it—the professor looked very frightened. When the bears realized what he meant about the super-ants’ eating habits, they got pretty frightened themselves. The questions came thick and fast.

  “Does that mean they can eat us?”

  “What’s a hybrid?”

  “What’s going to happen?”