I think many of you are tired already of filling applications for Connect Live 2020. So, lets break and enjoy the silence of Belarussian wood watching the first spring activity of usual forest ants. Maybe namely this small stop will help you to do your best in successful applying.
So recently while walking through the forest I have seen an anthill in the shade of trees. Maybe I wouldn’t have been interested in it, but it was big enough and I came closer. The inhabitants of this forest house were still sleepy after the winter, you can see in the video how slowly they crawl and even fall from time to time.
Perhaps I would have forgotten about the anthill and its dwellers, but a little further I saw one more anthill on the sunny lawn. How different it was!
You can see a lot of ants here and they all are very active. They literally swarm and crawl on each other’s backs.
But what were they doing?
The answer is simple but I had to use a Google search for help.
It turns out they work as live solar cells! Sitting on the surface of the dome, ant-workers absorb heat and, having warmed up properly, go back into the depths. Despite the size of the carriers themselves, heat is distributed throughout the anthill, due to the constant circulation of the ants: the heated ones go inside, the cooled ones go out. In this case, more and more ants are awakened, involved in the thermal cycle. This allows forest ants to mobilize the entire colony in a short time so that they can start repairing the anthill early enough after winter and lay new pheromone paths to the forage sites.
How do ants know what they should do, which branches to bring in the anthill and where to get delicious food? Who gives them instructions, does someone verify the correct implementation of these instructions?
Don’t you think that we also act like ants, each making his own contribution? And everybody is responsible for others. What do you think of it?
This post is truly educative. I enjoyed reading through it.
However, your introductory statement is funny… hahaha “I think many of you are tired of filling application for connect live 2020”. Yes, I am tired also, as much as everyone.
Connect has been alot different now with alot of new Local Guides and post.
Ants are well organized group of insects. Their knowledge is imperative.
Imagine the Bible made reference to the Ant… " Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise".
@OlgaKlimchik Thanks for sharing it here with us on connect.
@OlgaKlimchik In the Ant family or colony rather, there are different kind of works done. To my best of Knowledge I know the Queen mother only lays eggs and it is quite different from the rest of the Ant.
@OlgaKlimchik Ants are one of the most intelligent animals or insects in the world, How they coordinate themselves to build their home (ant hills), is still a mystery for us humans to learn. There organizational structure is superb.
Hi @OlgaKlimchik thanks for sharing and writing this post this is really interesting and i know also one or two ant lovers like me and i think you also …
Hi @OlgaKlimchik ,
your experience shows that there are an unlimited number of topics for writing posts. Thanks for the informative as well as philosophical story!!!
@JMD9 It’s interesting how they find the food. Once I and my son tried to notice the moment when the first scout ant come for sugar but we had missed the moment. Anyway it was a funny work when he described the process in all detailes with time to minutes: two ants came and one left, one is coming… not coming, changed his mind…
Hi @OlgaKlimchik thanks for your reply last so many years i am feeding ants and i love there discipline and hard working we can learn so many good thinks form ants keep in touch we will more discus about this thanks again .Regard
@OlgaKlimchik from my normal observations during winter and spring the Ants reside back into their Hills, eating up all the supplies (food) it has stored for this rainy day until winter and spring is over. By this time work begins.
You are right, @Austinelewex , ants spend their winter days in their anthills. In Belarus due to low temperatures they sleep during winter months, do they sleep in winter in Nigeria too?
