Ants are common all around the world. They are probably the most well known insect or even bug in the world. However, most people squash these amazing creatures when seen. But ants also have complicated and sophisticated lives. Read on to find out how!
SOME RANDOM ANT FACTS:
Alright. First of all, in Germany, you can’t squash red ants – they’re literally protected by the law. This is because the ants eat up to 100,000 caterpillars and other pesky little bugs per day.
A honeypot ant lives its life collecting honey like a bee. First, it squeezes some smaller insects, called aphids, to steal the aphid’s diet of honey. It stores the nectar in its abdomen. As the Honeypot ant collects more and more honey, its abdomen swells to many times its original size. Then, the ant goes back to the nest and vomits up the honey. Dinnertime!
Weaver ants weave. They use their larva as pins! The larva spit out silk, and so the adult ants actually move them up, down, left, and right. Hard life to be a larva!
One of the most peculiar ant behaviors is performed by leafcutter ants. They grow their own gardens of fungi! First, they mix ant feces (poop) with vegetation, causing fungi to grow. They then eat the fungus! This is part of the reason why they actually cut leaves.
Black ant larva are often ‘captured’ by red amazon ants, so they pretend like they’re red ant grubs by picking up the red ant scent. The red ants then feed and protect the black ant larva. The downside of this is that when the black ant grows up, it will have to work for the red ants.
THE HIGHWAY RULES:
Indian marauder ants make their own dirt roads. These roads can stretch up to 90 meters long. These are their rules:
#1: Move anything edible that gets in the way back to the nest as food. If it’s not edible move it off the road. If you find a worm, call 99 other ants to help you lift it. If you find a seed, call 29 more ants to help you lift it.
#2: Only returning ants are allowed to walk in the middle of the road. If you are venturing out, you must stay on the side of the road – make way for ants carrying food!
#3: MOST IMPORTANTLY: If any other species of ant crosses your way, kill and eat them. ALL!
THE SMELL RULES:
Ants need to recognize different types of scents to know what to do. So this is the smell book for ants:
Alarm smell=> if an ant smells an alarming scent, it can either stay and fight the intruder or run and just evacuate nest until the coast is clear.
Nest smell=> Ants won’t do anything if they smell this. Just normal business.
Queen mating time smell=> male ants will go crazy if they smell this scent. They will be pushing and pulling to get to the queen and a chance to mate.
Predator smell=> if ants smell something they can definitely can’t fight, they will all run and evacuate nest.
Dead ant smell=> the ants around the dead ant might bury him/her, or they might just eat the carcass.
Thanks for reading! -Written by EZ
DEC-XZ 