Like humans, these creepy-crawly critters live in communities and have highly developed systems for survival. They’ve been on Earth longer than humans have, though—in fact, about 40 million years longer. Here are some more fascinating facts about ants.
WHEN THE ANTS GO MARCHING IN
You’ve probably watched ants march single file across your lawn or sidewalk. Maybe they were carrying a tiny piece of bread that someone dropped on the ground. Or maybe the load was a dead beetle. Ants march in a line because they’re following a trail left by other ants. The trail goes between a food source and the giant nest where the ants live.
As many as seven million ants and one queen can live in a single nest. While the queen is busy laying eggs, the worker ants hunt for food and bring it home. And they’re strong: an ant can carry a load up to six times its own weight, and seven times its size. (Most humans can carry only about their own weight.)
Not only are ants strong, but they’re also the hardest-working insects on the planet. There are many kinds of ants, but each one has a job and works at it night and day.
Nearly 30% of Earth is made up of oxygen.
Gardeners. Leaf cutter ants have little gardens inside their nests where they grow a type of fungus that ants like to eat. They even make their own plant food. Using their powerful mandibles (jaws), leaf cutters bite off chunks of leaves and carry them back to the nest. Then they chew and spit out the leaves to make a fertilizer for their garden.
Ranchers. While leaf cutter ants are gardeners, other ants are ranchers. Just like human ranchers keep herds of cows, rancher ants keep herds of tiny green bugs called aphids. These aphids make honeydew, which is a sweet, sticky nectar. The ants milk the aphids for their honeydew and use it for food. They also feed the aphids and protect them from being attacked (and eaten) by bigger bugs and animals.
Doctors. Believe it or not, there are even doctor ants. A scientist in Russia was watching a documentary film of ants from the Amazon. He was shocked to see three Amazonian ants extracting a splinter from the side of another ant. There was clearly one “doctor” ant who performed the surgery. The other two “nurse” ants formed a circle around the patient and doctor to protect them during the operation. The doctor ant worked carefully, and finally removed the splinter.
Slave-makers. One species of ant, sometimes called the blood red robber ant, builds colonies by sneaking into the nests of other ants and stealing the young ones. They carry them back to their own nests and turn them into slaves. Then they make these slave ants gather food, feed other ants, and work as maids to clean the nest.
Ants are ectotherms (“cold-blooded animals”)—they can’t produce their own body heat.
Guards. Some ant colonies have guards to protect them from slave-makers. They block the entrance to the nest with their bodies. Many guards squirt a type of acid at their enemies. Some larger guards use their strong jaws to attack invaders.
So how do the guards know which ants are from their nest and which are strangers? By their smell. Ants have special nerve cells on their antennae that can smell odors. Each farmer, gardener, and soldier ant has its own special scent. That scent lets the others know if the ant is okay or is dangerous.
Soldiers. And speaking of dangerous, consider the most ruthless ants of all—the driver ants of Africa. They are some of the best killing machines in the animal kingdom. These ants move like an army, in groups of as many as 700,000 marching in rows together across the land. They’ll attack and eat anything in their path—even people!
Polite guys. But don’t panic—most ants are just hardworking guys (actually, most workers are females) going about their daily lives. They are very polite. When one ant wants something to eat, she gently taps her neighbor with an antenna. If there is danger, she taps a little harder as a warning.
CDs, crayons, and toothpaste all contain crude oil.