Patriotic Ants

This has been a great Fourth, well maybe here because it was overcast and a little rainy now and then.  For others where there are fires, not so much fun.

But anytime we have rain here it is cause for celebration.  It seems to have cleared out in time for tonight's fireworks.  This morning it didn't look as promising, it was quite cloudy.  It felt WONDERFUL to walk in the overcast, humid air this morning (at 6:30 it was 79 and sprinkling now and then.)

Nichole and I took a long walk around the neighborhood, talking to friends and watching the scouts set the flags out on the roundabouts at 5 intersections.  They do this every national holiday.  Well, several of them, anyway... Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day. They are good to get up early to do this on a day they could be sleeping in.


One thing we noticed today that was different than on other days is the way the ants were acting.  Usually we   see several different colonies on our walk.  Most of the time they are in a line hurrying someplace - toward food, most likely. They must tell each other there is something on down the trail, with thousands of them going SO fast back and forth.  We once saw them making short work of a bird carcass. YUM!


   Often they are working together in a different way, cleaning house we call it.  They come out of the mouth of their formicary with a tiny pebble and drop it, about an inch or inch and a half away. Then they go right back underground. Those little mounds of brown are easy to see. We haven't figured out what triggers that, and there are often several little hills in one area, presumably all from one colony.  Perhaps the nearby sprinklers made a mess of their passageways and they need to recreate their little tubes.  It does make us wonder just how far all those tunnels are running under our feet... like do they go under the sidewalk and grass and street?  A few feet away, or several yards?


Today it was another thing altogether, which we've seen only occasionally.  The ants, in colony after colony, were scattered.  ALL OVER the sidewalk!  There was no rhyme or reason, no one was headed anywhere at all.  There was no line to follow, no pattern.  Just ants and more ants all over our path. We couldn't really step over them as we walked, we were on top of them each time before we even realized it.  


Since we saw this about 5 times during our walk, we attributed it to the weather. That was the only thing that was different.  It was cloudy and humid, sprinkling a little bit.  Why that would send them out like this, we couldn't surmise.

Nichole decided they knew it was a holiday. After all, they weren't hurrying to get food, and they weren't cleaning out the house...  they must have been celebrating.

 "They are Patriotic Ants!"