Red Harvester Ants

These were discovered near our home on a nature study walk. They look freaky with their square heads, big pincers, and large red bodies, but they are very cool. We haven't been bitten by any of them, though that was what I was most afraid of (we have been bitten by red ants nearby, however). They seem to leave you alone if you leave them alone. They have a flat mound with a circle of bare dirt around the entryway. And you can see one of the trails leading from their mound to their food. They harvest seeds for food. Not sure where from around here. Grass seeds maybe? We have a lot of Longtailed Grackles in our yard, and they eat seeds too. Maybe it's grass or clover or some kind of weed that's producing the seeds they eat.

The Texas Horned Lizard gobbles them up. I'm kind of hoping we see one of those guys at some point.