the ants go marching two by two (million)

This was the wall in my kitchen a few nights ago.  All those black dots? Ants.

Ants in Belize are just a different entity from those nice black ants we have in Pennsylvania, which mostly just build little ant hills in the driveway.  First, there are about a million different kind of ants here,  like leaf cutter ants, red ants, and army ants.  Second, every kind of ant, even the tiny tiniest ant, bites. Hard.

These are army ants (using my curtain rod as their own personal superhighway).  Ever had to read Leinigan and the Ants as a short story in high school?  I did, but I didn't think that huge armies of ants that wander the country existed outside of Africa... we have them in Belize.  Basically, these ants don't have a nice ant hill.  They wander around all the time in huge, huge groups looking for things to eat.  They happen to wander into our house usually about once a month.

When they come in, you move.  They won't hurt you as long as you leave them alone, but if you squish one they will all come after you.  So I just move outside or to the other side of the house and hope that they don't get into my bed (cause one or two always get left behind) and watch various insects and small animals flee like from an oncoming fire.  This is about the only time I don't squash spiders when I see them.  I feel bad for them.

Then, after about 20 minutes, they all leave.  Don't ask me how a million ants communicate among themselves to move on to the next place...

And for those who think ants are gross, here is a nice sunset picture :