SILVEIRAS, Brazil � Jorge da Silva plucked a giant ant from the muddy ground, pulled off its wings, legs and mandible, and tossed it into his mouth like popcorn. The i��s are an obsession for the 6,000 people in Silveiras. "Tastes like mint," said Mr. da Silva, 58, with an audible crunch of his teeth. In his rubber boots, Mr. da Silva roamed the hills above this town of 6,000 people with a stick and a plastic bucket. He was on the hunt for Silveiras�s obsession and a rare gastronomic delicacy in Brazil: i��s, or queen ants. The thunderous spring rains in October and November drive the ants out of the ground, and for a few short weeks Silveiras becomes a frenzy of ant hunting. Residents stock up, cleaning the i��s and freezing them in one and two-liter bottles to get through until the next season. But this year the ant haul was smaller than usual, residents said, and the number of ants has been dwindling. The principal culprits are pesticides used on eucalyptus trees that are planted to produce cellulose for paper and other products, residents and local officials said. "With urbanization and the poison that they are putting into the soil, we do not have much time left," said Vera Toledo, 67, a writer and anthropologist whose husband is a native of Silveiras. Generations of indigenous people treated the ants as a protein substitute for fish and monkeys, residents said. Today, Silveiras residents � and the people who drive hundreds of miles every year to buy the ants � value them not only for their protein, but also as an aphrodisiac and source of natural antibiotics. Residents of this town 190 miles from S�o Paulo have kept alive the ancient indigenous tradition by cooking and serving the ants with traditional Brazilian dishes. These are no ordinary ants scampering over sugary leftovers, like the tiny American variety. I��s are big � up to an inch in length � and fat, and they can bite viciously. But the changing landscape means the ants are under threat, residents contend. Driven by Brazil�s growing economy, the eucalyptus trees have proved to be a big boon for some landowners in Silveiras, which has lost its place as a major coffee and cattle producer and once had a population of more than 30,000. Residents have not tried to make the ants into a big commercial enterprise. In northern Colombia, locals are exporting their "hormigas culonas" or big-rear queen ants, to France, Britain and other countries, where they are dipped in chocolate. The giant leaf-cutter ants in Brazil come from the same Atta family as the Colombian species, said Marina Saiki, a biologist at the S�o Paulo Zoo. But while residents here say they could certainly use the extra money, many seem more concerned with preserving the tradition � and the ant population � for themselves. Oc�lio Ferraz, Silveiras�s resident i��s guru, has dedicated himself to keeping the ant feast alive. A self-professed environmentalist, he has resisted efforts to export them, preferring to receive visitors at his restaurant, where he has a special kitchen devoted to frying the i��s. Mr. Ferraz, 72, says he receives almost daily phone calls asking him to start delivering ants to far-off towns. He said he looked into exporting them at some point but gave up because the Brazilian export laws for food are too complicated. Beyond that, he said, "I don�t think making deliveries would be good for the quality of the tradition." He grew up eating i��s at home and taught the tradition to his children. Then, 20 years ago, he held an i�� festival that drew more than 400 people. The festival�s success inspired him to create an arts and crafts center dedicated to the tradition. Today he shows off table mats, dishes, cups, his apron and paintings on a wall of his restaurant that all feature the queen ant. Other artists are designing toys. Slowly, Mr. Ferraz was able to help break the stigma that used to surround eating i��s, which had been seen as a tradition reserved for poorer families. "Many people would say they were embarrassed about eating i��s," he said. And yet, he said, every October and November "the entire town would smell like frying ants." Today the residents are more open about their appreciation for the crunchy queen ants. I am an i�� fanatic," said Mar�a Jos� Camargo, 29, as she sampled some ants at Mr. Ferraz�s restaurant. "I love it so much. It�s worth saving money all year to spend on i��s. My children are too young to catch them, but when they are grown they will catch i��s for sure." The içás are an obsession for the 6,000 people in Silveiras. Back in the hills, Mr. da Silva, the ant hunter, is teaching 12-year-old Dudu da Silva, no relation, how to capture the ants. With his bare fingers, Mr. da Silva grabbed the i��s one by one and tossed them into the bucket. Thump. Thump. Thump. The ants frequently bit Mr. da Silva, whose hands are typically bloodied after a day of catching them. At one point, a little girl watching him work cried out in pain as an ant bit her foot. Back at Mr. Ferraz�s restaurant, the ant catchers sell their haul for an average of about $15 per liter. He charges about $12 for a large plate of i��s with wheat fried in pig fat meant for two. While the ants sell fast and are a seeming source of pride, some Silveiras families are divided over the practice. Edson Mendes Mota, the former mayor of Silveiras and now its development director, said he does not care for them, even though his wife has 17 pounds of i��s in their freezer. "My wife likes it, my kids like it, the whole town likes it," he said. Mr. Mota supports the town�s growing eucalyptus industry, which has become the enemy of the ants. Landowners have a right to plant the highly profitable trees, though the plantings need to be regulated, he said. "We need to unite and sit down and discuss the fact that the new generation here will no longer know the traditions of our town," Mr. Mota said. Alair Duarte, the president of the town council, said he had proposed limiting eucalyptus plantings to certain areas so the ants can continue to reproduce. "If we don�t do it soon, we won�t have any i��s left," he said. "Before we can think about exporting i��s we need to preserve what we have here," said Mr. Duarte, who grew up eating the queen ants raw. If the i��s are imperiled here, some residents say they believe there is still a place where the eucalyptus plantings are not killing off the ants. "People say there are a lot of i��s in the cemeteries because they eat people�s brains," said Osmar da Silva, 43, an i�� salesman. "But it�s a legend," he said, though he admitted "I have never had the courage to go into a cemetery and actually look there."

Can't say enough about the benefits of predatory "bugs", our true bugs. Nothing makes me happier than to see a cog wheel bug or an assassain bug perched quietly among my plants, waiting patiently for an unsuspecting catepillar to come strolling past. And the next time you start to swat a fly, you might want to see what kind it is...some of our most common flies also parasitise caterpillars. We are so caught up in our need for immediate gratification...we really want to see results NOW. It is tough to reassuringly tell yourself about balance and long-term fluctuations when you can see the damage being done to a prized planting on a daily basis. And there isn't always a handbook to tell you what the threshold is-the point at which you either take evasive action or suffer a complete loss. I am reminded of the cicada hatching we had here several years back. All you could do was clap your hands over your ears when you went out and stare in disbelief at the branches completely covered with those shiny black insects. How could the trees possibly survive that sucking screaming carpet? But then things quiet down eventually and the scavengers clean up the last of the carcasses and you see that aside from a few dead branches and weakened individual trees, they came out of it ok. Unless the invader is a foreign one and the ecosystem has no defenses for the newcomer, there is always a check and balance.

Late husband worked for a health insurance company, and that was the last time we had a health insurance benefit. When he left that job, we got catastrophic care insurance, with a huge deductible. We eventually opened HSAs as well. Over the last ten years, each of us has had jobs that offered health insurance plans. We looked at the cost (to the employee) of those company plans, and the benefits, and restrictions imposed. We compared them to the cost of our current plans and benefits, (when you pay yourself, you chose who you want with no restrictions). The HSA balance creeps up over time, allowing more payments, (dental, doctor's office visits, optometrist exams,) on a schedule we controlled, instead of what the company plans would allow. Employers have been hit hard the last few years, too. The workplace plans we were offered had higher premiums than our individual accounts with Unnamed Health Insurance Company, and were not of more value to us. In spite of being a "catastrophic care" policy with a high deductible, It seems to be paying for things, or making partial payments for things, every time i turn around. Tick removed from back at walk-in facility: Paid half the bill. Prophylactic medication in case I was exposed to Lyme disease: I was stunned to have the couple bucks and change it cost. I asked the pharmacist "Isn't there a minimum dispensing fee?" Yes, she said, but the insurance covers it. If I hadn't had that policy, it would have been twenty dollars or so, for two pills. As it was, I paid less than three dollars out of pocket. I'm actually quite happy with the situation I'm in: the fewer people sticking there noses into my health care (policy wonks in DC or that lady in personnel) the better I like it. And it had no bearing on Poor Late Husband's demise: He had lung cancer, quite likely from his thirty eight years of smoking two packs a day. There were unusual circumstances that contributed to his sudden death only five weeks after diagnosis. No amount of chemo, surgery etc., would have saved him. I had a cancer scare myself, actually less than three months after his passing. I asked a nurse what would happen if I had cancer, and my insurance didn't cover treatment. She said she didn't know how that worked, and she said the doctors and nurses take precautions to not know anything about the finances of patients. That way, she said, those with or without insurance are treated the same way while in the hospital. I think it's stupid to go without insurance to have more money for lattes and cell phones, but I defend others' rights to spend the money they earn in a way that they find valuable. As for people who "End up in the emergency room because they couldn't afford a doctor" I've personally known, lived near, worked with some of those people...and they abused the emergency room option so they wouldn't have to pay. I've heard them rationalize taking a child with an earache to the emergency room to avoid a $20 co-pay at the doctor's office, and the hassle of scheduling an appointment. Then in the next breath they griped that they had to wait so long to be seen.

I have an 8 year old Boxer, Millie, that had her first seizure just over a year ago. It was long and violent and tortuous to watch lasting well over 3 minutes. I immediately took her to the vet and he started her on Phenobarbital and Valium. She had several more smaller ones until the levels were where they needed to be. In the year since she's had dozens, some worse than others, and we've added Potassium Bromide to the mix. She continues to have small focal seizures lasting a few seconds almost daily. She was hospitalized last month with Pancreatitis. While there she had one larger and one smaller seizure. Since she's come home she seems to be deteriorating. She sleeps most of the days away. She has difficulty walking, stumbles or falls when she stands still for more than a few seconds, bumps into things and has fallen down the stairs. She seems to be losing control or strength in her hind legs. Last night she fell asleep at my feet and then couldn't stand or walk for a couple of minutes when she woke. This morning, on the other hand, she came as close to running as she has in a while to go outside and potty and play for a moment. It was brief. She's eating well, looks and sounds a good as ever which makes it that much harder to wonder "How much is enough for her?" I guess that's what I'm looking for, advice on "enough". She is our absolute favorite person in the world and is loved beyond measure. As terrified as I am about her leaving us, I am more afraid that she's suffering as she is. I've never had to even consider this for a pet so I'm lost to the rationale of it. How do you know when they've had enough?