Tried to take pics, but they completely disappear from any photos I take of them O.o
So I gave myself a little side project today (between games =P) to figure out just what these are. I've hit several ant identification sites, looked at countless photos, nothing. The best info I could find was on ants that invade homes, but this species seems to rarely do that, if ever. I've never seen them in a house, best I can remember. They just have these tiny mounds surrounding a single hole, probably interconnected with other mounds underground I'm guessing.
They're very passive, don't have stingers, and I've only heard of two instances where they've bitten someone I know, and they say it's not painful at all. Also, they are INCREDIBLY FAST! I was trying to demonstrate that in the vid, though it took several tries to actually spook them.
One interesting thing I did learn though, is that there's a new breed of ant accidentally imported from Argentina called the "crazy ant". Seems they're slowly moving into my area (in fact they've been spotted in the county just south of mine) and driving out the fireants. Good news, they're not aggressive and have no stingers. Bad news, they seem to be more inclined to invade homes, and have a habit of getting into electrical appliances and shorting them out.
Not fire-ants. Fire-ants build bigger mounds with many holes and have stingers, and they all swarm and sting you at the same time. These guys don't have stingers and they're not aggressive at all. I've certainly earned some bites from them when I was little, but they never let me have it.
Not fire-ants. Fire-ants build bigger mounds with many holes and have stingers, and they all swarm a