I was peeling back some bark on a dead hemlock tree, which is laying on the ground near my cabin.... mindlessly, i ripped a big piece off and found the biggest ant ever under there!!! Big ant, with big ant egg sacs... and no other ant like it in sight. A giant loner. Jet black with light golden hairs and rings on it's back end... A dark loner. An ant who doesnt lay but a small amount of eggs, it seems to manage on it's own. A single loner. Does anyone know what kind of ant this is? XoxoxXO
Another resident at the Luck Cabin! I love inside bugs during the winter because outside I just don't see them anymore - the ground here is frozen now, like the mud has become a brown hard glacier. I have this black bug buddy crawling up my walls and sneaking behind things to stay warm a few times but had not had the chance to get close up....
but once I did, i was really baffled by all the bugs this one insect represented... beetle in it's movement, ant faced, bee segmented belly, tiny wings (faux or not?) , grasshopper legs!
WHat Is IT?
This buggie is also rather large! It is not the size of an ant... it's a bit of a beast. The kind of bug that would make my mom freak out and call for help. (My mom once called the police when a snake was in her yard!)
It even walked straight up to my cat Toots and tried to start a fight with her. She kept backing her face away from it.
There are so many things in nature which have saved my life, physically and emotionally. Nature doesn't choose by personal preferance, it chooses by survival. And while this may seem cruel at one turn, there is nothing cruel about it, it is simply part of the natural process of life on earth. I suppose at one time I used to watch nature do it's thing and just be amazed by the beauty, then as I submerged myself into it 24/7 I saw that there was as much destruction as there was creation, there was value in every living and dieing thing - and most of all there were these simple therapeutic messages in the way eco systems function. Messages so simple and strong, they changed my life to one that was more tolerable inside my chattering mind, a life more accepting and at peace. No, I didn't get totally buddha and enlightened... just less miserable with better skills of coping.
While society teaches us to take everything personally, nature says don't sweat it... it wasn't thinking of you when it made that hurricane, tsunami, earthquake, thunderstorm, or big wind come your way. Basically if you have a question about your life, take a moment to go outside and watch how things function outside the modern human realm, and there is an solution. One so simple, usually we don't like it.
Watch dis' video below... cause the ants say it betta' ...
Sometimes when you cut up bamboo for kindling (for the wood stove fire) ya might find a lil' family living inside the hollow & cozy stalk! This whole colony of black ants fell out of a piece of bamboo onto the floor... In order to get them back together, I took a broom and gently swept them into a dust pan. Bort (co-fire starter) got the idea to put them in a tin can with paper to hide under, and once they settled in there I put the can o' ants in one of my large potted plants so they could re-colonize somewhere more pleasant. :) XoXo
I was peeling back some bark on a dead hemlock tree, which is laying on the ground near my cabin.... mindlessly, i ripped a big piece off and found the biggest ant ever under there!!! Big ant, with big ant egg sacs... and no other ant like it in sight.
Jet black with light golden hairs and rings on it's back end...
An ant who doesnt lay but a small amount of eggs, it seems to manage on it's own.
Does anyone know what kind of ant this is?
XoxoxXO
Another resident at the Luck Cabin! I love inside bugs during the winter because outside I just don't see them anymore - the ground here is frozen now, like the mud has become a brown hard glacier.
but once I did, i was really baffled by all the bugs this one insect represented... beetle in it's movement, ant faced, bee segmented belly, tiny wings (faux or not?) , grasshopper legs!
This buggie is also rather large! It is not the size of an ant... it's a bit of a beast. The kind of bug that would make my mom freak out and call for help. (My mom once called the police when a snake was in her yard!)
It even walked straight up to my cat Toots and tried to start a fight with her. She kept backing her face away from it.
Xoxoxo
Sometimes when you cut up bamboo for kindling (for the wood stove fire) ya might find a lil' family living inside the hollow & cozy stalk! This whole colony of black ants fell out of a piece of bamboo onto the floor...
In order to get them back together, I took a broom and gently swept them into a dust pan. Bort (co-fire starter) got the idea to put them in a tin can with paper to hide under, and once they settled in there I put the can o' ants in one of my large potted plants so they could re-colonize somewhere more pleasant. :)
XoXo
