conuly

For the past two or three summers (not sure which), we've had a tiny insect problem on our front porch. On a specific spot on our front porch, in fact - right underneath the banister on the left of the door, immediately next to the support structure holding that banister up.

There isn't a hive directly above or beneath this spot.

Every day or so during the summer, we (or I, really, nobody else looks) will find a mound - sometimes a substantially sized mound - in that spot. The mound consists of lumps of dark red waxy stuff, lumps of bright yellow waxy stuff that smells vaguely like clover or dandelion, and quite a bit of yellow powdery stuff that might be pollen and doesn't smell like anything. It's not being built into a structure, it's just piled up. No tunnels, no rigidity, not even any distinction between "well, here is where we put this stuff, here is where we put that". It might also include dead grubs (always dead ones). Tiny black ants (smaller than the text on this page) busy themselves walking back and forth around the mound, neither adding to nor taking away from it (unless they're eating the dead grubs). There aren't very many ants, you'd see more if you dropped a little bit of sugar water on the ground and waited.

The mound doesn't grow during the day, I think. I've been checking. Whatever is building it is either doing it during the night, or during the very early morning.

Edit: And every time I see this mound, I sweep it away. Doesn't matter, it's always back within a week. Or a day, even.