I just Destroyed an Ecosystem

[NJCher]

In my mailbox.

Yes, and somehow it was built in an hour.

Here's the story:

Yesterday the mailman knocked on my door. He said, "There's a nest or maybe someone shoved leaves in your mailbox."

I said no way, I had just been in the mailbox an hour earlier. He shrugged and said check it out for yourself, and handed me my mail.

I remembered to check it later. I was astonished at how huge it was. It took up half the mailbox. There were leaves, sticks, and even some coir that "whatever" had retrieved out of my planting baskets. As I pulled it out (fortunately had gloves on) a skazillion ants scattered, even crawling up my arm. There were all kinds of little white things in the nest that the ants seemed to be working on.

The funniest part was a ladybug came out and ran across the top of the mailbox. I think, but not sure, she had a couple ants in her mouth! I imagined her saying, "I was having lunch!!"

I was going to say I've never had anything that odd happen to me in nature, but I did have one other weird incident.

It was about 10 years ago and I opened my front door to find it full of garden soil. My cats, indoor cats, thought this was really cool and immediately jumped on to this soil.

I have never figured out how my entryway was filled with garden soil. It's only about 6' wide and 6' deep. I did take pics with the cats reveling in their newfound playground. Showed this to friends; no one had any idea of how it could have happened.