Surprise Ant Farm

[seedjar]

So I was cleaning out my kitchen cupboards today when I decided to throw away a box of ginseng extract that seemed to have been attracting ants. I removed the last few bottles and went to dump the ants out over my Neps when I noticed that they were tending eggs! I think I spotted a queen in there, too. I don't have room for any colonies of house ants around here, so they're still going to be plant chow, but for now I've left the nest/box intact until I can snap some pics.
~Joe

 

[Capensis]

Neat. What are you going to do afterwards? Exterminate them?

 

[SirKristoff]

lol they arent the horribly gigantic black ants we get here in western washington are they!? i hate those things.

 

[seedjar]

No, they're really small and smell kind of like sour milk. I believe they're called odorous house ants.
I'm not going to squish them, but they do need to go, one way or another. I don't think they'd survive if I just put the box outside somewhere, so I'm going to leave them on my Nep shelf and they can fend for themselves. If the plants are generous with their nectar, I suppose the colony could live on indefinitely, but they'll have to contend with the troupes of outdoor ants that visit from my yard.
~Joe