Ants are smart creatures as they work in coordination with a common goal, but their colonies can get disturbed due to susceptibility to health conditions.
Can Ants Get Diabetes? Ants can get diabetes because most of their diet contains sugary foods, and their bodies produce insulin-like substances to regulate sugar levels in their bodies. Any alterations in the production of this substance can lead to diabetes in them, and they can suffer from conditions like obesity.
Diabetes is not common in insects because their bodies have varying metabolic rates and lack a pancreas that can produce insulin to regulate blood sugar levels.
However, it is observed that ants can help detect diabetes because the urine of diabetic patients commonly contains high levels of sugar that can attract these sugar-loving insects.
Why do ants get diabetes?
Most probably, you think about the risk of diabetes in ants because their diet mainly comprises sugary foods than grease or protein food material.
Many of their species choose sweet plant secretions to get energy, in addition to flower nectar. Moreover, they eat sweet cakes, candies, chocolates, breads, etc., as a carbohydrate source.
Accordingly, they are at risk of diabetes due to increased uptake of sugary foods like honeydew from aphids, but it is not the same condition as in humans.
It is a disease in which the insulin-producing cells or beta-cells cannot produce enough insulin to regulate the blood sugar level due to the destruction of pancreatic cells.
Accordingly, the level of sugar increases in the body and leads to diabetic conditions. It is observed that ants also produce an insulin-like substance to control the sugar level.
These insects are prone to fungal and viral infections that can trigger the destruction of beta-cells in the insects and make them diabetic when sugar is not controlled by insulin.
So, genetics and environmental factors like the risk of infections and increased intake of sugary foods can pose a risk of obesity in insects.
Do diabetic ants get fat?
Ants store food in the form of fats to use during food scarcity, so it helps prevent hunger and starvation in these insects.
Diabetic ants can get fat because the sugar level in their bodies increases due to a lack of insulin-like substances. As a result, they convert excess sugar into fats and store them in the abdomen.
Their exoskeleton keeps them in shape, but their abdomens swell to a maximum extent giving them a fatter appearance.
Accordingly, they can become overweight due to multiple layers of fats on the inner side of their abdomen. Obesity relates to being overweight so that diabetic ants can become obese.
There are many side effects of obesity on their lifestyle, as it directly impacts their mobility because they cannot move efficiently with extra weight.
In the same way, they cannot carry out foraging activities with the same efficiency as they do with lighter bodies because they can carry 20 to 50 times their body weight.
In addition, they cannot defend properly when the predators attack colonies due to fat accumulation because being overweight makes them feel sluggish and heavier.
Every species has varying dietary habits, and the colony requirement also matters because they switch eating habits to proteins and fats when the colony is growing.
So, it is essential for these insects to balance their diet and avoid the risk of diabetes, as they can become prone to many health problems associated with this disease.
What type of ants are more prone to get diabetes?
Thousands of ant species exist in nature with varying dietary habits and habitats, so they are not equally at risk of diabetes due to differences in eating patterns and food preferences.
Sugar-loving ants are considered more prone to this disease because they have more sugar intake than other insects relying on dead or alive insects.
In addition, they keep crawling in different habitats to look for food particles and meet their body requirements so that they can get infected with contaminating microbes.
These microbes activate their internal immune system, which can sometimes begin to destroy its own cells instead of foreign particles.
This non-targeted destruction can affect body cells synthesizing insulin-like substances and make them diabetic.
Excessive sugar intake by pavement ants, argentine ants, carpenter ants, and thief ants can lead to the deposition of fats and make them obese when there is not enough insulin to break it.
Furthermore, fire and banded sugar ants also get attracted to sweet food items, which can increase the sugar level in their bodies.
Can you treat ants when they get diabetes?
You cannot treat diabetes permanently, but a few changes in dietary habits can keep sugar levels under control. It is essential to reduce sugar intake because there is no insulin to metabolize it.
Accordingly, you have to cut off the food resources rich in sugar and even salt to ensure the longevity of your pet ants because their bodies cannot tolerate high sugar levels.
Insulin hormone does not regulate salt, which does not directly affect the blood sugar level but can raise blood pressure, so it is better to avoid giving salty food to them.
Choose healthy food types to feed pets if you detect that they are getting obese and becoming diabetic. You have to keep their sugar level in ideal concentration to make them survive longer.
In addition, exercise can efficiently deal with this disease as it helps burn calories. Ants remain busy in activities and move all day, so their muscular bodies are always engaged in exercise.
It is not possible to repair their damaged cells and make them able to produce insulin-like substances again, so you have to keep an eye on the sugar intake only to reduce its deposition.
What happens when ants get diabetes?
Some people cannot detect whether their pet ants are diabetic because they do not know about the symptoms of this disease in insects.
These insects need more water and food compared to other healthy insects because they are always busy doing hectic activities and burning calories.
In the same way, they feel dehydrated quickly and get tired after doing a little work because they cannot metabolize sugar to get energy.
In addition, their work efficiency reduces as they cannot move fast to reach their destination, unlike healthy ants. Their ability to carry heavy weight also gets badly affected due to obesity.
Excessive consumption of sugar leads to dehydration and increased hunger, and it is also observed that these insects cannot survive longer.
So, you can detect diabetic ants among colony members by observing their eating habits and working efficiency because they do not perform functions actively.
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