Flying ants

[Carma Sue Henry]

We had guests at Sunset Theater tonight.  Several of these little critters landed on my arm.  Looking online lead to the happy conclusion that they aren't termites.  They are about 5mm long.  Their antenna are 'elbowed', head and thorax are smaller than abdomen and distinctly 'pinched', and wings (separated in the photo) are of two lengths and not much (if any) longer than the abdomen.  

I couldn't get any better ID than that on the sites offered up by Google - mostly ads for pest management companies.  Had fun trying to get a decent pic with my phone camera, though.  I ended up using the Food setting.

We do have sugar ants that come inside on occasion and are fairly simple to control with a borax and sugar mixture.  However, we also have some ants outdoors that have undermined a section of paver blocks on our porch, leaving visible piles of sand near the depressed areas, so I think these might be what were referred to as 'pavement' ants.  Never noticed alates of them before this year, though.  We will have to pull up the pavers and replace the sand and I think I'll mix in some borax to see if that discourages them.

I imagine they're a tiny taste treat for bats and little fly catcher birds.  It was right next to the hummer feeders so maybe they can catch some.  We did, as usual, see a few full sized termites over the last couple of weeks.  These tiny fellows are new this year - our 5th summer back in the WV.

Carma Henry