Ants can carry out life-saving amputations on injured nest mates, study shows

Ants are hella cute. Sometimes I would get ants coming into my home, and it was fun watching them try to find food somewhere. I tried to keep it clean. Were these the recon teams sent to find stuff?<p>Sometimes I’d bring them to my desk and it was cool hanging out with some ants. I eventually caved and bought some sugar cubes. They seemed to LOVE them. I chipped them into smaller chunks, and watching ants yeet them on their “shoulders” and carry it back home was so cool.<p>Then somehow they’d just not show up again for many months. But I was always glad when I’d start seeing them come back.<p>Why are they so cute :o

I also recently learned that ants remove deceased workers from their nest, and dump their corpses somewhere else.<p>Source: my office carpet

Stunning!<p>They are also the only other animal on the planet to manipulate it&#x27;s environment to grow food, apart from humans, by protecting aphids. Sometimes they even wage war to neighboring nests, and kidnap larvae which subsequently grow as workers. Ottomans were very fond of this practice.<p>Ant&#x27;s face photographed on an electron microscope shows an animal with a very high level of intelligence.

The ants where I now live are so big that it’s easier to see their more subtle behaviors. About the length of a finger nail. Yeah yeah I’m sure there are bigger ants than that, but I consider that pretty big for an ant!<p>They are fascinating to watch. I often see one ant carrying another, and occasionally see a group of ants trying to get another one unstuck.

If you are into ant behavior have I got a treat for you, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;@AntsCanada" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;@AntsCanada</a>

&gt; The nest mates then proceeded to repeatedly bite the injured leg until it was cut off<p>More evidence in favor of ants being the cause of the zombie apocalypse.

I once saw a spider amputate its own leg. It was severely crippled, only able to move in small circles. Then it suspended itself from a small shelf and started biting off the one leg that was immobile. After it was done it lowered itself on the ground and walked away totally fine.<p>Since the behaviour seemed very innate I figured that it must be something that happens frequently and is a known phenomenon.<p>Or maybe ant scientist just don&#x27;t read spider papers :)

I have some carpenter ants that appear every winter, then they make off with some of the blades of my grass.<p>Just a bit after you stomp some of the workers or drop some diatomaceous earth on them you can see soldiers appearing in the entrances to their holes. They seem to actively try and block injured and&#x2F;or dirty workers from re-entering the nest.

Another week, another story about how we aren&#x27;t as unique as we like to think. Each discovery points to more intelligence, more skills, more capacity for emotion or pain. One day I think we&#x27;ll regret how we treated animals so poorly while the evidence was there all along. All that was needed was the precautionary principle.

For the few people here who are not useless assholes and don&#x27;t want to kill these beautiful and perfect creatures, just spray vinegar mixed with water around your kitchen or whatever to drive them away.

Will Wright has a lifelong obsession with ants, which he expressed in the classic 1991 Maxis game &quot;SimAnt&quot;, that lets players role play as &quot;Ant Jesus&quot;, who can sacrifice his life so that others may live.<p>In this 1991 sim game, you played as Ant Jesus:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pcgamer.com&#x2F;saturday-crapshoot-simant&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pcgamer.com&#x2F;saturday-crapshoot-simant&#x2F;</a><p>&gt;SimAnt really is the weirdest simulation. For starters, you literally play as an ant. One ant. A single, solitary ant. Only not! You&#x27;re really more like the God of the Ants, with powers that would be amazing and world-changing and beyond belief, if not for the unfortunate fact that... well, you&#x27;re just an ant. You can die and be reborn for instance, like Ant Jesus, only with a larval stage. You have effective omnicognisance, with the ability to see the world and understand the human residents who dwell within it. Your charismatic power allows you to draw armies of fellow ants and lead them into battle against the foul humans, spiders, and other things that stalk the back garden. Too bad the whole &quot;being an ant&quot; thing means it doesn&#x27;t usually go so well. If only you had some proper weapons. Like the Holy Hand Grenade of Sim Antioch.<p>Schneier on Security: The Security Mindset<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.schneier.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;archives&#x2F;2008&#x2F;03&#x2F;the_security_mi_1.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.schneier.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;archives&#x2F;2008&#x2F;03&#x2F;the_security_...</a><p>&gt;Uncle Milton Industries has been selling ant farms to children since 1956. Some years ago, I remember opening one up with a friend. There were no actual ants included in the box. Instead, there was a card that you filled in with your address, and the company would mail you some ants. My friend expressed surprise that you could get ants sent to you in the mail.<p>&gt;I replied: “What’s really interesting is that these people will send a tube of live ants to anyone you tell them to.”<p>In 2011, Will Wright&#x27;s &quot;Stupid Fun Club&quot; studio partnered with Milton Levine&#x27;s &quot;Uncle Milton Industries&quot;, who developed the original &quot;Uncle Milton&#x27;s Ant Farm&quot; in 1956, to develop a creepily unique cult classic toy product, &quot;Ant Farm Revolution&quot;, in which ants live and dig their tunnels in a green translucent nutrient gel developed by NASA, through which an LED light and lens projects frightening shadows of enormous ants crawling around on the ceiling!<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Milton_Levine" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Milton_Levine</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Formicarium" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Formicarium</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sfvbj.com&#x2F;retail&#x2F;uncle-milton-industries-inc&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sfvbj.com&#x2F;retail&#x2F;uncle-milton-industries-inc&#x2F;</a><p>&gt;Most recently, Uncle Milton partnered with Will Wright, the creator of The Sims, on a multi-year licensing agreement for Ant Farm Revolution, the newest product under the Ant Farm brand. The most recent version of the toy includes a cylindrical gel-filled case, allowing consumers to watch ants create their own 3-D habitat. The product also features an integrated LED light and projecting lens that illuminates from within and projects ant shadows on walls and ceilings. It sells for $39.99.<p>Benjamin Taylor: Uncle Milton - Ant Farm Revolution:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.behance.net&#x2F;gallery&#x2F;18480457&#x2F;Uncle-Milton-Ant-Farm-Revolution?tracking_source=search_projects%7Cant+farm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.behance.net&#x2F;gallery&#x2F;18480457&#x2F;Uncle-Milton-Ant-Fa...</a><p>Uncle Milton: Ant Farm Revolution:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=H3homHfkqaY" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=H3homHfkqaY</a><p>Uncle Milton Ant Farm Revolution Hands on Review:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=OcYY7iwPS0c" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=OcYY7iwPS0c</a>

Proverbs in the Bible says &quot;consider the ant&quot; with respect on how to work.