Ants

I was out in the back yard this afternoon…a bright, sunny day with a breeze and temperatures in the 70’s. I had some small decorative rocks to move out of a flower bed so I could clean it and get it ready for some annual flower seed. I picked up one rock that was laying flat on the ground. As soon as I did, I saw that an ant colony had taken up residence under the rock. There were several trails and some white ant eggs there where the rock had been, along with three or four holes into the ground.
Of course, the ants seemed to be panicked and were going every which way. I carried the rock to where I wanted to stash it, about 50 feet away, and came back to where the rock was. I was gone all of about 30 seconds or perhaps less. By the time I got back, I noticed that there were fewer white eggs than there were just a few seconds ago. I watched and noticed that even though the ants seemed to be going helter-skelter, they really were working to get the eggs underground. Ants were carrying eggs along the trails to the holes. Other ants were coming out of other holes, bypassing the trails and coming “cross country” to the egg nests. They then would pick up an egg and head for the nearest hole, on a trail.
In less than a minute the ants had carried all of the eggs underground. In another minute or so, I saw no ants anywhere…they had all gone underground. I’m sure that if I go back out there after an hour or two, I’ll see at least one new entrance to their underground nest to replace the ones I destroyed by moving the rock then raking that area to get rid of the debris.
I like what the King James Version of the Bible says about the ant. (Proverbs 6:6-11)6”Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: 7Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, 8Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. 9How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? 10Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: 11So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.”
‘Nuff said.