Nuptials in the night

Living in the tropics is full of adventure. Having come here from the high desert of Colorado it has been and still is an incredible learning and growing experience.

Todays topic is ants, we have here in the tropics an amazing array and quantity of ants.  I can't say I really appreciate them, but I do understand their purpose.  They are cleaners, sort of like the Sweepers on a spy show.  They swoop in and clean up the mess.

This morning, as happens most morning, my first order of business is to take a stroll about the garden.  Our 2 dogs, Tech and Ceniza don't come with me, they prefer to stay in bed with Tom, heck they sometimes even stay in bed after he gets up.  The fosters however, Lili and Rubi, are always more than happy to accompany me.

We had another BIG rain last night.  Thursday night was nearly 2 1/2 inches, last night was nearly 3.

After a rain, a substantial rain, when conditions are hot and humid,  and the wind is minimal, swarms  of winged  ants  will leave their nest and take flight. These ants that depart the nest are sexually active - according to wiki "This mating flights occur simultaneously in all ant nests of the particular species. The female "queen" ants will fly a long distance, during which they will mate with at least one winged male from another nest. He transfers sperm to the seminal receptacle of the queen and then dies. Once mated, the "queen" will attempt to find a suitable area to start a colony ..."

Thursday night we had friends over.  Normally we do our entertaining outside, it is waaaaay cooler outside.   Luckily Thursday night we were 7 total so being inside wasn't too bad.  The rain was relentless.  So as we were sitting around the table the small flying ants would drop around us. They were attracted during the night to the lights shining from inside.  My screens are covered in the ant wings which detach once they land.  I am still cleaning up ant wings from Thursdays swarm.

This morning, Saturday, as I was standing  out on the pergola admiring the jungle that my back garden has once again become, it sounded like rain drops hitting the leaves.  I looked  up, farther up than the tops of the quite tall trees, and there was a monstrous swarm of the large red black ants. It was a seriously huge swarm, and the ants were just dropping, like rain drops.  It's now over an hour since I first saw them and they are still out there, swarming and dropping.

Great, a queen wants to set up housekeeping in my back garden.  Where are the bats, the birds??????  why aren't they there feasting?????

Ants of a feather, flock together...? OK, bad title.

On Sunday I posted about the flying ants that were in the house.  

I now believe that those were not ants at all but termites.

Why, do I now think that you may be asking yourself?

Well, let me tell you a story -

 



I woke this morning a little later than usual because it is still raining here and it is quite heavy and overcast.  I typically wake with the birds.  So this morning it was about 6:30 when I disentangled myself from the sheet I was rolled into and hoisted myself from my hammock. 










As is typical of most mornings I took a garden tour with the dog and the cat. 

This drizzly dark morning as I got to the pergola I noticed 'stuff' all over and was trying to figure out what it was when my senses started to kick in, this 'stuff' was moving, things were dropping on me, and no, not just the droplets of water, then I started to focus and notice things around me....

There were hundreds of thousands of flying ants,
fornicating flying ants,  they were falling from the sky,

I looked further and there was this dark undulating cloud of swarming vermin, they'd 'hook up' and drop, 

they were dropping everywhere!

I came back to the house for my glasses and the camera, I contemplated waking Tom and decided against it. So I returned to the pergola and started taking photos - by the way I definitely need a better camera, I could not focus on closeups of these copulating monsters.



I did finally go back and get Tom up so he could see this.  By then the cloud was dissipating, and the fornicators were tiring, wings were dropping, and I was then able to get a few shots

This guy actually came at me as I was trying to take pictures,
it was trying to attack me!

including the Queen who was in the pool!

So now I am involved in minor ant research, trying to figure out just what type of ant are these - do I have cause for concern?  Do I now have new colonies of ants taking up residence in my garden?  And why weren't birds feasting?  I fully expected flocks of birds to converge and gorge?  But no - they flew by without even a moments hesitation.  I did photo one very plump gecko, but alas it was blurry.  Gotta get a better camera.... 

Oh, by the way, I'm thinking Carpenter Ants!

“Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment. They farm fungi, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into war, use chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves, engage in child labor, exchange information ceaselessly. They do everything but watch television.” - Lewis Thomas

Tropical Storm Alex, and Flying Ants

Well Tropical Storm Alex passed South of us so all we are getting is rain, cool temps, overcast skies, and flying ants.  It's fabulous, for us.  We will see how Belize has made out!

I spent quite a while Saturday removing windchimes and mobiles from the trees, moving potted plants to secure locations, removing  garden and pool statuary to storage, etc, etc. 

Today, I returned most of the stuff to its rightful place.

Flying ants!   We are being inundated by them at the moment.

When humidity and temperature are just right ant swarming occurs.  Winged ants leave the parent nest and go in search of   other sexually active ants, they mate.....well anyway, my point is Alex missed us, and due to the rain and humidity the ants are doing what they do.

This evening, as I sit at the computer little flying ants are crawling on my leg, flying into my hair, providing entertainment to the cat, and just generally being pesty!

EEESCHHKKKKK, I hate flying ants!