We have more ants this year than we've ever had. In fact, they seem to be everywhere we work in the yard. Tiny black ones.

We can't tolerate ants in the house, but I try to live and let live outside. The birds are supposed to do the dirty work of controlling bugs. The idea is that we don't use pesticides, which provides a good place for birds to hang out. The birds are supposed to eat bugs in return. Well, they're not eating enough of them! Not even close.

I just did a quick search to confirm that birds do eat ants, and they do. Or they're supposed to. In fact, flickers (woodpeckers) are supposed to be huge ant "pigs." That's ironic, because that's the one type of bird we've tried to discourage because they've done so much damage to our house. Now that I think of it, we haven't seen (or heard) any flickers in about the same amount of time we've had swarms of ants here . . . 

By the way, snakes, spiders, and other bugs are supposed to eat ants, too, but you'd never know that around here.