305611645_VJKkC-SWe are all familiar with ants.  Ants are found scattered far and wide over the world.

There are red ants and lack ants.  Others can be brown or yellow.

Some ants are hunters.  Others may be farmers, dairymen or carpenters.

Ants known as harvester ants are large, long-legged red or black ants that live in warm, dry, sandy places.

They get their name because they harvest, or gather, seeds of weeds and other plants and store them in their underground nests for a future supply of food.

They have large, crushing jaws for breaking seeds.

To build rooms underground to live in and sore seeds, the harvesters carry grains of sand outside and pile them into a big outhill over the nest.

The harvester’s home is easy to spot because of a trash heap of discarded seed husks piled outside the entrance.

If stored seeds get wet, the ants spread them in the sun to dry.

Photo courtesy:  alexwild.smugmug