A post from July of 2022 that I never published–
There are two things that I see ants do almost every year. One is farming. I’ve shown pictures of this in the past, but not yet this summer. Actually, I was just musing today on the fact that I hadn’t seen a single ant farm since the weather turned warm. The Gods of the Great Outdoors must have heard me and granted my wish, because I found a tiny ant farm on a clover flower that I picked for a bouquet for Livia.
I hadn’t meant to ruin their farm, but having already picked the flower, the damage was done. I put the flower back in the grass. I hope the bugs all find a new home.
The other thing I see ants doing every year is moving their colonies. At least I think they’re moving. I see them scurrying around like mad, carrying what appear to be eggs, and I can’t imagine what else they could be doing but moving.
The lowest of the three is carrying something (egg? larva?).
I wonder every time, “Did something attack their nest?” According to my research, that’s a possibility, but apparently ants sometimes just up and move themselves for no obvious (to entomologists, anyway) reason.
P.S. One of the most disturbing things I have discovered while researching the native flora and fauna is how many of the search engine hits relate to destroying the very things that I’m researching. I want to know more about the ants, not kill them. Geez. Sometimes it seems as if humans have decided that they hate Nature and would rather replace everything in it with lifeless replicas.