A few times a year the leaf-cutter ants make a salad table out of my garden, stripping the bougainvillea, especially. Today they were busy outside my walls but so far they’ve left the new little bougainvillea bush alone.
https://ceenphotography.com/2017/05/27/flower-of-the-day-may-28-2017-rhododendron/
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
That’s fascinating — I hope they continue to leave the little plant alone
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Nah. They’ll get to it. I just hate to kill them, but they could strip my entire garden in a few weeks, so eventually I have to go to war. They are so organized and industrious and determined that I hate it, though. There are two big nests outside my wall that I’m leaving alone. It looks like they are mainly taking dry leaves, but then they could be leaves they cut down earlier that they are carrying away.
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I’ve only ever seen leaf stripping ants once, in a zoo! They are fascinating critters, but I’d hate to have them near my yard!
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I want a photo gallery of those bastard cutter ants!!! (Um, please?)
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I have never seen, but I have heard of, leaf cutter ants. To have a garden is a constant conflict with other forces!! When you stop to think about it, I am amazed the world can grow enough food for all of us on the planet.
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I know, and I realize ants are part of the chain, but when exterminators tried to rid one property of these ants, they found a tunnel six miles long! Talk about an organized society.
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Wild things always seem to protect the young…even across different species. May your baby bougainvillea live and thrive.
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