have u ever killed an ant and seen two other ants carrying it?

Question

i think this is really weird, why do ants do that. my mate say that they eat the ant after i know this is crazy but its freaking weird.
do u have any idea wat is happening?

Answer 1

yeah. when i was little i used to kill them just to watch the others come around it and carry them of. one time i did it a about 4 came up to it ran of then 8 came up to it and 2 of them carried it and the other 6 followed it, i think it is funny.

Answer 2

According to Hölldobler and Wilson (1990) the transport of dead nest mates
is a stereotyped behavior found in most ants. A few (like Atta) have
special chambers for this, but most carry the dead nest mates a short
distance away from the nest entrance and deposit them in "refuse" piles.
They do note that in one genus, Pogonomyrmex, the distance of 1 meter was
not enough to stop the corpse-removal response and the workers often picked
up the dead ants that had been dropped at this distance before depositing
them again, usually in the same place they found them. Why your ants travel
so far is not easily determined. Perhaps the ants have some corpse
associated aggressive fungal disease that can reach them via spores if the
dead ants are too close. This is, however, only a guess. Corpse removal
possibly evolved as a way of avoiding such fungal or perhaps bacterial
invasions of the colony.


I guess to sum up respect!!

Answer 3

THose 2 ants ar the "Antbulance" (Ambulance of Ants), one time I took off a lizards tail and about 30 ants came and carried it up a wall and into some place

Answer 4

u see when an ant dies it gives off this odor and thats how the other ants know its dead. i dont think they eat it, they sort of store it in a room with other dead ants.

have u evern seen two ants carrying an ant that is still alive. well thats because the ant is dying and is giving off the death odor, even though it is moving the other ants think it is dead.

Answer 5

I've never deliberately killed one, but I've seen them carry all sorts of stuff. I love watching ants. They follow the scent of the ants in front of them, to wherever they're getting the food from, and back again. If you block the route, they go absolutely mental and rush around all over the place! Heh heh!

Answer 6

yes ive seen it and "try getting out more" come on take no notice of that last comment they sometimes feed the dead body to the baby ants or the queen ant or it gets dumped at the entrance to the nest been a while since school so im a bit rusty about this lol
hope it helps you :)

Answer 7

The diet of ants varies from species to species, but in the UK they mainly eat small invertebrate animals of about their own size including themselfs, and the occasional vertebrate corpse. They will also eat some fruits, and are very partial to sugary substances.

Answer 8

They got a docter that uses the cable wires to reanimate the ant back to life while praying to "Nibbles" the queen ant of God.

Answer 9

they're taking the dead ant in for the preparations of the funeral and wake.

duh!

and depending how important the ant was depends on if the queen ant will show up or not.

Answer 10

yea i've seen it before but i have no clue what they are going to do with it maybe eat or or jus take it back to the ant colony maybe you should watch the discovery channel it'll prolly have somethin on one day OR search on the internet for a site about ants :-)

Answer 11

Yes that is their next meal. They don't believe in wasting a good set of food.

If that freaks you out try stomping on the two carriers and then when carriers come for them stomp on those etc. You won't make a dent in their population but you will feel you are in charge again.