The ant is a very valuable insect. Ants are diggers, they turn over the soil, aerate the soil with their tunnels, tunnels that allow water to soak into the soil easier. Ants also help disperse seeds of many native plants. The ants collect the seeds and return to the nest.
Ants play a crucial role on our planet. They are populous in number and essential for soil aeration, fertilization, and ecological balance. Ants are also a vital food source for other creatures. The extinction of ants would cause catastrophic damage to our ecosystem.
Ants act as decomposers by feeding on organic waste, insects or other dead animals. They help keep the environment clean. Carpenter ants, which make their nests in dead or diseased wood, considerably accelerate the decomposition process of timber.
That would cause serious ecological imbalance. Ants are predators of a huge amount of insects. In addition certain species of ants defend many varieties of plants. Consequently, many plant species become extinct to be vulnerable to the attack of pests; pests, before devouring ants.
It would take several hundred ants to pick up each pound of the person. So you'd need to know the person's weight and then multiply that by 200 to 300 ants.
To the naked eye, ants deal with their dead much like humans. When a member of the colony dies, the carcass will lie where it fell for a period of roughly two days. In the fashion of a wake, this time period presumably gives the other ants time to pay their respects to their fallen comrade.
Other published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition has revealed that ants contain high levels of antioxidants and that regular consumption of them could help prevent cancer.
Now researchers believe that injured Matabele ants often recover when they would otherwise die thanks to their comrades who lick them back to health. Researchers believe that these ants possess antimicrobial substances within their saliva that prevent infections and contribute to accelerated wound-healing.
Although some species, like the carpenter ant and the stinging fire ant, can be pests, ants are generally beneficial. The leaves and insects brought into the nest as ant food decay and fertilize the surrounding plants. Ants act as decomposers, feeding on organic waste, insects, or other dead animals.
A recent study of ants' sleep cycle found that the average worker ant takes approximately 250 naps each day, with each one lasting just over a minute. That adds up to 4 hours and 48 minutes of sleep per day. The research also found that 80 percent of the ant workforce was awake and active at any one time.
Ants know where to search for resources & adapt themselves to their surroundings. This teaches us that life will take us to many places, we will meet new people, make new friends. Not every place will be within our comfort zones & thus we must aim to adapt ourselves to our surroundings.
Scientists have found out that ants began farming millions of years before humans did. A team from America have looked at how ants have evolved and found that the insects had complex underground farms, growing different types of fungi.
Each ant's brain is simple, containing about 250,000 neurones, compared with a human's billions. Yet a colony of ants has a collective brain as large as many mammals'. Some have speculated that a whole colony could have feelings.
In the insect world, it's usually butterflies that are associated with social behavior, but according to a new study it's ants that really can't live without their peers … literally. Discovery News reports that ants died after just 6 days of isolation, whereas the socially integrated controls lived for up to 66 days.
Ants are found almost everywhere on the planet. The only areas that don't boast populations of ants are Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland, and some island nations. Most species live in soil, leaf litter, or decaying plants.
Consuming red ants cures acidity and enhances eyesight and its eggs helps to keep the body cool and prevents sunstroke," said Sukra Durua, a tribal healer of Siribeda village in the block. It is not easy to get the hives from the trees.
Individual ants have tiny brains but together the many ants of a colony can exhibit remarkable 'intelligence'. Ants exhibit complex and apparently intelligent behaviour; they can navigate over long distances, find food and communicate, avoid predators, care for their young, etc.
The Palm Leaf Manuscripts mentioned velvet ants as being useful for treating inflammation. These ants are ground into powder before being mixed into a “nerve-tonic” that shows potential as an effective antispasmodic. This powder is also mixed with honey before being consumed by patients to treat paralysis.
Like other edible insects, ants also have considerable nutritional values. They are rich in minerals: calcium and potassium first of all, but also iron, phosphorus and magnesium.
Ants can be eating raw or they can be cooked. It all depends on the taste someone wants and the culture. The taste depends on the species of ants too. They tend to be sour on their own.
According to Dr. Pritt, for the most part, eating a bug isn't cause for worry. In general, your body will digest arthropods, which include arachnids like spiders, mites, and ticks, and insects such as gnats, flies, mosquitoes, fleas, and bedbugs, “just like any other food,” she says.
It is advised not to squash ants, doing so will only release pheromones and trigger more ants to come to the location and cause more trouble to you and your family. Ants are known to pack a deadly bite that causes excruciating pain for a short time.
Ants become the pallbearer
After a few days the dead ant is carried off and placed on the “ant graveyard” by the other dead ants. This may seem like ants have complex feelings and need a few days to grieve before they dispose of the body, but in reality it's far more chemical than that.
Ants transport their dead there in order to protect themselves and their queen from contamination. This behavior has to do with the way ants communicate with each other via chemicals. When an ant dies, its body releases a chemical called oleic acid.