The lack of anything major going on in the garden as well as my free time being cut back drastically for the next month or so has kept me out of the garden and away from posting. I know I have missed much but am grateful for the time I am able to spend outside. Fortunately, yesterday provided me with one of those often missed moments.

Yesterday along with harvesting leaves I was moving some mulch around and filling in the herb bed. Every 10-15 minutes I would be back at the mulch pile for another load. When I was just about to start the third or fourth load I noticed something that I have witnessed only a couple of times before, the dispersing of winged ants.

Granted these little guys can be a real pain if you step on them but the part of their life cycle that involves the winged individuals has always fascinated me. The ‘swarmers’ as they are called emerge to mate, disperse and start new colonies. I had a rake leaning against a t-bar that was about 5′ from the mulch pile. They were making their way up the metal bar and setting off for parts unknown once they reached the top. This group was on the other side of the yard from the house and caused no alarm there.

The fact that their body consists of three sections rather than two, and their front wings being longer than their rear wings identify this group as ants rather than termites. About 15 minutes after taking this picture I checked and they were all gone.