Fire Ant Life Raft

We've had a lot of rain, and my backyard is flooded. The ants are in survival mode, with clusters of them forming floating "life rafts", while others cling to anything above water.

I don't own a macro lens, and instead worked with my nifty fifty, two-fifty, and 100-400L. I know the shots aren't the greatest quality, but I think they're interesting enough to post.

After trying to capture decent shots of this, I have even more respect for the photographers in the Macro forum.

There are some cool videos of this ant behavior on youtube. I may try to shoot some more stills and video if the sun comes out tomorrow.

1. A floating ant colony:

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interesting photos, thanks for sharing

Where's your gasoline and a match?

cool pics

you take the weed burner to them after the pictures? I HATE fire ants!

Makes my skin crawl.

+1 to the gas and a match.

Wow, that's awesome. I've never seen anything like that. Thanks for sharing!

Those are some GREAT behavioral shots there. Really like the colors and reflection in 4 and 5

Very unusual...cool shots!

You did a great job of capturing this behavior. Survivor is the fastest to the top, hmm corporate traits must be innate!

Wow, way cool. Thanks for sharing.

Moral of the story: "Sucks to be at the bottom."

sandwedge wrote in post #13826911
...but I think they're interesting enough to post.

I couldn't agree more! This is fascinating! Thanks for sharing!

Could have been great with a torch in a shot.

I remember those things in AL.

Great time to start an ant farm. I would have done the same thing...grab the camera first.