Post · CoreSignal social

@futurebird (or anyone else who's knowledgeable about #ants )

Are these eggs?

This is the third time the ants have piled them in our mailbox. The 2 prior times they removed them within a couple days.

How do we convince them to NOT keep piling eggs (or whatever these are) in our mailbox?

a photo capturing the full interior of the mailbox showing two piles of these capsule things on opposite sides of the inner mailbox.

a pile of yellow capsule shaped things covered with ants where the floor of the mailbox meets a wall

esc key

@what@chaosfem.tw replied · 2 days ago

@masukomi @futurebird imagine if congregating in mailboxes was an adaptive trait. get carried with some mail, end up spreading, flourishing, more mailbox ants, etc etc

Eph

@ephesossh@mastodon.online replied · 2 days ago

@what @masukomi @futurebird Mailboxes Antcetera, is that anything?

myrmepropagandist

@futurebird@sauropods.win replied · 2 days ago

@masukomi

For some reason mailbox ants are a common thing. I think this is Tapinoma sessile.

Is the ground very wet or dry? They have come from someplace.

masukomi

@masukomi@connectified.com replied · 2 days ago

@futurebird a) thank you 🙇‍♀️
b) it is a mailbox on a post like most of them. I have no idea where their main nest is, and I didn’t see an obvious trail of them down to the ground, but I admit I didn’t look too hard as I assumed it was probably there.

They are right by the road, which is a reasonable distance above where all the water gathers. It rained like five days ago, so the ground is neither particularly wet or dry at the moment.

myrmepropagandist

@futurebird@sauropods.win replied · 2 days ago

@masukomi

Don't worry about them moving. Ants like this are really good at moving when conditions change. They can do it in a few hours. It might even be fun to watch.

myrmepropagandist

@futurebird@sauropods.win replied · 2 days ago

@masukomi

If it's sunny and you leave the box open it will get too dry and ants hate light. That might be enough to get them to move out.

CoreSignal social

A minimalist social node dedicated to high-fidelity exchange and digital autonomy. CoreSignal strips away the noise of the modern web to provide a clean, functional space for meaningful connection within the Fediverse

CoreSignal social: About · Code of conduct · Privacy · Users · Instances

CoreSignal social · 1.0.0-rc.3.6 no JS en

Automatic federation enabled