Can anyone tell me what kind of insect this is? It joined me for lunch today outside.

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__________________
"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

Looks like a termite. Count the wings. If 4 then it's an ant. If 2, then it's a termite.

For god's sake, don't let it near your toe!

I'll go out on a limb and call it a gnat...

Oh now ya tell me, I had to dig the little bugger (no pun intended) out of the trash and count his wings, he had 4. I couldn't identify the gender someone was using the scope.

I had shoes on today, not my thong(s).

__________________
"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

Do you normally wear a thong?

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
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Gawd hep us awl!

She has thermite in her thong.

More like fire ant juice....

__________________
"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

I toed you something was afoot.

B

I thought that termites had four wings, but the pairs are almost coincidental so it looks like two.

A termite has one body section (separate from the head) whereas an ant has two. I vote termite; it's pretty close to the right time for them to swarm.

You're right. I confused Hymenoptera with Diptera.

More info including a damning photograph: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termite

My next question: Could you use an ant eater to keep these little pests under control?

__________________
"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

Nice pictures there, Bot. I've seen a bunch of live termites, including workers, soldiers and alates (swarmers).

I hate the little buggers. I'd like to find a way to farm them and turn them into diesel fuel. Instead, we have a pest-control guy who baits them.

As far as ant eaters, I seem to recall that they like termites. Ants seem to like them too; they carry them off in droves if you expose one to the other.

The alate that you found is present in very small percentages in a colony. They fly from the colony when certain conditions are met each spring, hoping to run into an opposite-sexed alate from another colony and start their own.

No, termites always create living conditions for themselves that are very specific in regard to temperature and humidity. In some parts of the country and some species, this translates into mounds, in others it translates to a subterranean existence. In my part of the world, they find their ideal conditions at roughly 300' underground -- far too deep to kill by any means other than chemical barricades that prevent their access to the surface. Anteaters could certainly help contain certain types of termites in certain areas, but their overall effectiveness would be negligible in most circumstances.

Ants and termites will engage in a type of warfare against each other, termites are not as ill-equipped in regard to defense as you might think...

They're not so equipped when you move a bunch of wood, finding both ants and termites underneath (presumably, previously separated). The soldiers aren't much good out in the open, and the termites get carried off like the little morsels that they are.