It is pretty late for bee swarms. Below I have a photo of some active ants from our yard, and I thought it was an interesting photo. Most social insect groups reproduce their colony by swarming, include bees, ants, and termites.

The term swarming is typically applied to insects. When the colony grows to a certain size or otherwise exceeds a constraint of its environment, the colony will split with many going to a new home somewhere else, and the remaining insects staying behind to rebuild the colony.

It appears that these ants are doing just that, so I took their picture. Typically, when ants swarm they produce flying ants, with male and female ants mating to form a new colony. So who knows what these ants are doing, but I like to think that they are swarming.

Bee colonies, of course, reproduce by swarming. It is a bit late (July 2023) for bees to swarm in Virginia, as food (nectar and pollen) is becoming scarce and the weather is typically hot (making resources like water more important and harder to find).

May you prosper and find honey.