Weaver ants

If only life can also be as simple as that of ants. All they do are to forage for food, defend the nest, take care of the larval young and care for the queen whose job is simply to lay eggs.

It so happened that there's a small nest of weaver ants outside my house. Discovered it yesterday when I was attempting to prune the leaves on a plant. Very clever insects. They pulled three or four leaves together and used their silky secretions to bind the leaves. The result? A perfectly camouflaged ant nest.

This is my first experience with weaver ants. To be frank, I've never even heard of weaver ants before, let alone seen them.

They are very aggressive. If they feel that an intruder is near, a bunch of them will appear to defend the nest. I tried to rouse them by tapping on the leaves and suddenly, an army of them came out to look at me and wave their feelers menacingly. They followed me wherever i moved my lens.