Ants are the busiest creatures in the world, working in shifts, and the colony seems to be in working condition 24/7. They notice changes in surroundings if it significantly impacts their survival.
Do Ants Know When Other Ants Are Missing? Ants do not know when other ants are missing for almost 48 to 72 hours because they cannot recognize a dead body until it begins to produce oleic acid or chemical secretions to give a signal to fellows. These chemical signals help them know about the missing fellow and reach to bury it in the midden and avoid infection in the colony.
They can detect a variety of chemicals in their surroundings as their smell receptors are many times stronger than yours, enabling them to detect mild odors from a distance.
The lost ants usually cannot survive and die quickly, producing a decaying odor that can get recognized by other living nest mates.
Do ants notice when other ants are missing?
Some of the nest members are crucial for the colony’s survival, like queens, and their absence does not remain unnoticed for long, and their number is usually one or two.
Foragers and non-foragers can quickly identify when the queen goes missing after dying or getting lost from the nest. Their absence can put the whole colony at risk of death if not replaced.
Accordingly, the workers began to feed the princess and allow her to become the next queen or get a chance to gain a royalty status and control the population.
However, the absence of adult workers does not matter for the colony because they are present in a large proportion. Most of the eggs become sterile female workers that can replace the dying ones.
Moreover, they usually remain busy in their nest activities, foraging and hauling food particles, as they do not notice if one or two of their members leave the colony.
Their absence does not have any prominent effect on the colony’s activities as the new generation can make up for their loss; even the nursing insects can become foragers to fill the space.
However, their living fellows can only recognize the dead workers when they give off a decaying odor, and the odor molecules bring their fellows to death spots.
Why do ants leave a colony?
Ants are loyal to the colony and work for its sustainability in their whole life, as their primary purpose of birth is to work for the survival of colony members and protect the nest.
In the same way, the queens produce new eggs to introduce a new generation to replace the old ones, as they have a shorter lifespan and die within a few days or months.
The workers are responsible for bringing nutritious food and moisture back to the colony to avoid starvation and death because they need a food supply to revive their energy.
So, it is essential to know why these insects leave their colony. They do not get apart from their fellows intentionally but can get lost after leaving their nest for foraging.
There are chances for these insects to forget the path that leads to their nest when they have covered a distance of several miles away from their territory.
So, they leave a pheromone trail to follow the path and get back to their nests. However, the situation can get complicated if the pheromones are wiped out due to dominating odors or flooding.
It creates difficulty for these tiny insects, and they ultimately get lost. The missing ants can rarely survive if another colony adopts them. The lost insect usually dies within a few days.
In addition, the predators can attack their small bodies, or other colony members can kill them if they have mistakenly entered their territory.
How do ants know when other ants are missing?
Ants can understand the chemical language as they cannot speak or see very well, so they rely on pheromone signals to reach the food source and return to their nests.
They can produce a variety of chemicals and release distinct chemicals in each situation to make decoding messages easier, as the nature of chemicals tells about the type of message.
The dead ants began to decay after some time, and the decaying bodies produced a particular chemical, which is oleic acid. It has a mild odor that gets recognized by strong receptors of fellows.
Moreover, the living fellows move around the dead fellow without even noticing that it is dead until it begins to produce odor molecules.
However, they can identify their fellow when their smell receptors capture the odor molecules, allowing them to reach the death spot. It is the only signal to know about missing one.
So, their antennae touch to detect the odor molecules on the ground and air and detect the direction of smell to move in the right direction. They will carry the dead one collectively to return it to the nest.
When do ants notice when other ants are missing?
Workers keep doing their work when other ants are missing as they do not notice the absence of any fellow member for a few days.
A missing member takes almost 2 to 3 days to get recognized by the fellows, as the living insects can find them dead when the decaying process starts.
The rotting bodies began to produce a distinctive odor by releasing a chemical secretion. The stinking smell can help them notice lost ants and reach a pile of dead insects.
In addition, the decaying process starts after 48 to 72 hours; that’s why the missing members are noticed after several hours. A dead member remains on the death spot for at least 2 days.
You can find the living insects roaming around the dead body without even bothering that their nest mate is dead because dead ones do not have pheromone-coated bodies to get recognized.
However, their bodies release a rotting odor after a few days allowing foragers to bring their fellow back to nests.
What do ants do when they find a dead ant?
Ants do not leave their dead nest mate when they notice a missing fellow. Instead, many ants reach the spot and carry the dead ants on their backs.
Their sense of smell is so strong that they can detect the decaying odor from a distance of several feet and carry the dead bodies back to their nests to bury their fellow.
This task is performed by the foragers navigating the territory, searching for food, and finding their fellow dead. The scouting insects give a signal to other by releasing chemical secretions.
Many worker ants reach the dead spot by identifying the chemical cues and carrying missing fellows on their backs to shift them to a specific chamber of nest.
The dead insect is buried in the midden or the chamber designated for keeping the corpse because it can pose a risk of infection to the colony if they remain close to others.
So, these insects bury their dead ones, unlike animals, but the purpose is to protect the living members as a lot of germs feed on the decaying bodies that can get transferred to the colony.
Related Articles: