Today’s Exhibit A is an anti-nature example.
About a week back, some kids dropped a trail of gummi worms on the bike/walking path. You know the kind I mean – the gel-type candy with the neon colors never found in nature.
Like this:
They seem to have been deposited on purpose, at regular intervals, decorating the path from the shopping center down past the school. It’s possibly an experiment. I know I’m sorry I haven’t taken daily photos to document the course of their non-decomposition.
I should note that we live in a fairly rural area. We’ve had coyotes and bobcats on our porch, along with various other kinds of wildlife. There’s a pretty vital cycle of life here, predation, scavenging and insectile clean-up. Nothing organic lasts long.
Yeah, you know where I’m going with this.
At first
, nothing seemed to change. They glistened in the hot sun on the asphalt path for a couple of days. To all appearances ready to be plucked up and eaten.
Only nothing was eating them.
Gradually the color leached away. Apparently even those neon dyes aren’t forever. But they were still recognizably gummi worms.
Now you can see they’ve shrunk into what’s probably their original, cylindrical core. Not unlike those plastic plugs you keep in your junk drawer, not knowing what their real purpose is.
After a couple of hot days, they finally appear to be melting somewhat, though not enough to lose their distinctive shape. The ants occasionally nose at them, but carry nothing away.
The now leached worm cores melt and recongeal. Sometimes a bicycle tire swoop carries a bit away.
I fully expect them to become one with the asphalt.
Gah. Nice to know I've eaten an entire bag of those in one sitting. They're probably still in my stomach.
Little plastic cores rattling around your intestinal system…
Hey, maybe that is how you make the asphalt?
On the other hand if someone was using this instead of breadcrumbs they were totally counting on the fact that they would last as long as they are.
Both excellent points, Kelly! No getting lost in the woods because the birds ate your gummi worms… And yes – I fully expect this will be the new method for maintaining asphalt. So cheap, too!
Ew! Glad I was never into gummy anything…this is as disturbing as the twinkie experiments.
It's the bone-goo known as gelatin.
Watch it wiggle, see it jiggle. Hot and melty.