I have always fascinated myself with ants. Black ants, red ants, fire ants, killer ants. Any ant!

They are one of the hardest working insects to ever exist and are very organized.

If you would like to share knowledge about ants then please do.

Just recently scientists have discovered how ants are able to regroup to make a new home when their previous one has been destroyed.

As you may know each ant has a certain task or job so to say. How it is decided I am not sure, yet when a ant home has been destroyed the "scouts" look immediately for a new home. Their "chemical scent" left behind tells the others to follow and to get to work immediately collecting whatever is neccessary to make the home.

For example - "the lumberjacks" I would like to call them cut grass to a certain measurement and have them fall to the ground to have other ants "collectors" to bring it back to their home.

Also it is said that they also create music on their own with clicking sounds for communication.


I am sure there is more to talk about on ants. Like the killer ants in Africa and how they eat everything that is in their way. Scorpions, small rodents, chicken, bigger bugs, etc. etc.


Okay go ahead educate us on this!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant

Funny you mention this, smiles, as I was thinking of how I had heard that ants keep other species as slaves, while making a point about humans, ethics and nature.

This is cool, too:

I find ants fascinating too. I think the symbiotic relationship between ants and aphids is really cool. Aphids expel sugars when they are feeding on plants, and ants really dig this honeydew the aphids excrete. Normally, ants will attack/kill/eat other insects, but they will not harm the aphid! In fact, the ants actually will attack any predators, such as lady bugs, that try to eat the defenseless, slow-moving aphids. The ants will even pick up aphids and move them to new feeding areas, which would be hard for an aphid to do. And, the ants will move aphids underground in the winter to prevent them from winter kill. When you see a bunch of ants on a tree, there is a good chance there is a colony of aphids somewhere and vice versa.

I also find it interesting that some people think that we are on the top of the food chain. But, I think if you ask a human parasite/virus/bacteria who is at the top of the food chain, you may get a different opinion...and possibly a human virus "thinks" humans were created by God to support their life! We have all kinds of fun and exciting symbiotic relationships going on in our own bodies even..example: we need bacteria in our gut, and they need us to survive and live out their lives...symbiosis is so cool man.

I tell you those names are not only hard to read, but try to pronounce them. (chrysobalanaceae) or (Leucocoprinus) or (agaricaceae). lol

Nevertheless, this is very interesting information you share with us.

You bring up some very good points and what you write is very interesting. Thank you for sharing this.

Renegade queens will invade a foreign colony on their own, using special scent excretions to trick the colony into thinking it is one of their own. The foreign queen will then root out and destroy the native queen. The queens caretakers initially attempt to pull it to safety. If the native queen is killed before the confused natives can come back with a defense, the invading queen's scent causes the caretakers to immediately forget their dead queen, and acknowledge the invader as queen as if she always was so.

Ants communicate through chemical secretions that are excreted through their rear. Some ants are able to produce as many as 50 or 60 distinct scents that inform nearby ants of what is going on in the world around them. Since ants are mostly blind, this method of communication is an invaluable tool for survival. Distinct chemical scents may lead the way to prey, they may summon other ants to subdue prey, they may warn of danger, etc. When an ant is dead, it stops producing these chemicals. This is the only indicator an ant has that a nearby dead ant is in fact dead. If a living ant stopped producing these chemicals, it would be assumed dead and carried out of the colony to be discarded.

Aren't ants the strongest creature on this planet, for their size? Or is that just a myth? I think they are able to carry something like 50 times their own body weight(or a lot times their weight anyway, i havent researched this).

your thinking of Chuck Norris

I just finished thinking about him.

*Gets tissues*

I didn't know ants are almost blind. Makes alot of sense now with the secretions they do from their rear end.

Love it!

What would interest me is if an ant has an actual brain? Is it possible to see it and even dissect to see how the brain functions?

Sounds gross but something so small with such organizational skills amazes me.

Sounds like a perfect segue for Bushido to discuss intelligence as an emergent property of the brain... the individual ant does not demonstrate nearly as much intelligence as the collective activity of the ant colony does - and its even mediated (like neuron communication) with chemical messengers!

Do ants have morals?

The ant does have a brain...well, it's more like a clump of neurons. But it's amazing what a mere clump of neurons can do.

I think it is more like ten or twenty times their body weight. Still, that would be akin to a human being lifting a small vehicle.

Actually you are pretty much correct. An individual ant is not capable of much except biting. Evolution thinks groups of one celled creatures which once acted independently first acted symbiotically, and later combined to create multicelled creatures. To a large degree, ants do the same thing. The 'nest' is aware of the attack of an human foot and organizes defenses. The 'nest' does complex adjustments to maintain temperature, raise young, store food, etc., in the same way a complex animal with a complex brain would do, while doing so with a lot of independent creatures acting together.

This process is known as a 'hive' mentality and explains why a swarm of bees could chase someone.

MetalWing, thats exactly the kind of thing I had in mind - and bees regulating the climate in their nests.