What's inside? Ice and ants.

[urbpan]

A few days ago I wrote about the strange things I encountered during the cold snap. It only lasted one day, and we're back to warm (for January) and muddy weather. Here's what I found the next day:




Hose ice.



I dismantled a bird shelter that had a perch made from pvc pipe. When the pipe came away from the wood, this is what I found inside:



Ants! They were overwintering in here I suppose, and were quite sluggish. I don't know what kind of ants they are, they are intermediate in size between carpenter and pavement ants.



Their sleeping or perhaps dead bodies spilled out into the corner of the bird shelter.

Comments

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

Cool!

[drocera.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Carpenter ants. I DO like ants in general, but those carpenters skeeve me out. They're too big, plus...well...it's a long story. Suffice it to say that I had a friend whose house was being eaten by these guys...and when a portion of her wall was torn away, carpenters came squirming out in such huge amounts that it looked as if she had a black carpet. It was truly the most disgusting thing I have ever seen.

The hose ice is cool, though!

[bellelvsbeast.livejournal.com]

Dang what a combo...:P

[principito.livejournal.com]

In with the ants i can see a couple of beetles too, they look like carabids, but who knows :)