At first I did not think about it much… in fact other folks too were just walking down the side walk without a care… but then I thought to take a closer look at the floating debris… and it turned out to bee ants. Lots and lots of ants. Thousands and thousands of them, in a cloud of mating joy.
Here is a close up shot >>>
getting around to uploading some of my Insect photos from the trip to Mexico we took in December… and to getting some of my older photos off the old server and up on to Flickr.
Here is a great shot from June 30, 2007 >>>
<<< Potato Bug(Woodlouse), infested with Parasitic mites… these mites look(at this magnification) just like the Varroa Mites that are causing the Honey Bees of the world so much trouble.
Note: Not sure if I put this specimen in my freezer collection for further investigation. I’ll have to check, and if so bust out the microscope.
Update: I did not put this specimen in the deep freeze… kicking myself for not doing this, it would have been nice to get some micro-scope photos of these mites.
and here are some ant photos from Mexico… lapping up the water sweating from a Pina Colada >>>
<<< I need to get a better Macro Lens.
Well, I’m back from Mexico.
Things have changed in my job a bit, I am now the Manager of one of our cafes, just a stones throw from the roastery… tis’ to be a temporary thing until we find someone. I don’t mind the job, it’s just not my passion. We’ll see. Maybe it will grow on me, I have always wanted our Baristas to have more passion about the Coffee… maybe this is the way to get them there.
Like I said… Back from Mexico. I took a trip to Atlanta a few months ago to train our staffs in our new cafe in Decatur, and just as with Mexico, the first few days I saw no Insects. When I was in Atlanta I got a little creep-ed out by this, as if the Atlantins had dusted the city with a cloud of bug-death. I’m not fawned of poison; what kills bugs probably kills me.
Turns out my eyes were not opened to the Insects that are out there. The different ways they fly and crawl and noises they make. After a few days in Atlanta I wondered how I could not have seen them all. The bees and wasps are the size of small birds over there.
It was the same in Mexico… just did not see any Insect life the first day and a half… not even mosquitoes, although I did get two bites. After that I started to see them… Ants are big in this part of Mexico, the Yucatan that is. Some of them so small it was hard to get in close enough to shoot them, others so fast and furtive they too where difficult to shoot as well.
Alas I did get a few good photos on this trip, I’ll try and get them up on my Flickr page soon.
Here is a nice shot I got just before dark in Playa del Carmen. >>>
Ants ravaging a dead honey bee, hauling her of to their sandy borrow.
Side Note: No good coffee to be found. Well, at least nothing totally rockin’.
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