Let the Ants Try: A twisted tale of Nuclear destruction....and rebirth

He had invented something disturbingly like a time machine and was on his way to the Pentagon with the plans when the bombs fell. And that was the end of that, along with his family and the entire city of Detroit and every other major city in the nation. But he was still alive 3 years later and scrabbling in the dirt to grow enough food to live. Food that hopefully didn't turn around and try to bite him due to the all too frequent mutations. One day he was hoeing his poor little 'farm' and puzzling for the millionth time over the apparent unstoppable need for humans to kill each other when he saw a colony of mutated ants. These scurrying creatures were no bigger than usual but seemed to have developed a new way of breathing. It was then that the thought struck him "What if we would let the ants try"?