How House-hunting Ants Choose The Best Home
Dr Elva Robinson and colleagues in the University’s School of Biological Sciences fitted rock ants with tiny radio-frequency identification tags, each measuring 1 / 2,000 (one two-thousandth) the size of a postage stamp, then observed as they chose between a poor nest nearby and a good nest further away.
The ant colonies showed sophisticated nest-site choice, selecting the superior site even though it was nine times further away than the alternative. The best nest was chosen, despite the fact that very few individual ants made direct comparisons between the nest-sites.
When a colony of rock ants needs to emigrate to a new nest, scouting ants first discover new nests and assess them then the scouts recruit nest-mates to the new nest using tandem-running, where an informed ant leads a second ant to her destination. When the number of ants in the new nest reaches a quorum, scouts begin rapid transport of the rest of the colony by carrying nest-mates and brood.
In the Bristol tests, very few ants appeared to make direct comparisons between the two nests by making multiple visits to each before choosing one or the other. However, approximately half (forty-one per cent) of the ants that first visited the near nest later switched to the far nest, whereas only a tiny minority (three per cent) of the ants that first visited the far nest switched to the near nest. This ultimately resulted in the entire colony ending up in the better nest.
Dr Robinson said: “Each ant appears to have its own ‘threshold of acceptability’ against which to judge a nest individually. Ants finding the poor nest were likely to switch and find the good nest, whereas ants finding the good nest were more likely to stay committed to that nest. When ants switched quickly between the two nests, colonies ended up in the good nest. Individual ants did not need to comparatively evaluate both nests in order for the entire colony to make the correct decision.
How house ants pick their dream home
Seeing all the available houses in the neighborhood and then choosing is not necessarily the best option, at least if you’re an ant. These house-hunting rock ants manage to make a decision together even without going through the options they have.
In this recent study conducted by Dr Elva Robinson and colleagues from the Bristol University, they put tiny radio-frequency identification tags on the ants; each of these small tags was about “1/2000” as big as a postage stamp. What they wanted to observe was how they made the difference between a poor house nearby and a better house further away. They were pretty surprised to find out the ants have a pretty sophisticated way of choosing, and location isn’t all that matters.
When a colony of ants decides there’s a need for a new nest, they first send out scouts to smell out the nearby nests. If the scout fancies the respective site, he, as an informed ant, briefs some other greenhorn. Then this greenhorn goes to the site and if he thinks it’s all good, he goes out to another and so on, until they reach a certain number. When they reach a quorum, they start moving the necessary materials for a new nest. This may result in a temporary split of the ant population, as some may pick a different place than the majority, or they can split into more than 2 places.
“Each ant appears to have its own ‘threshold of acceptability’ against which to judge a nest individually. Ants finding the poor nest were likely to switch and find the good nest, whereas ants finding the good nest were more likely to stay committed to that nest. When ants switched quickly between the two nests, colonies ended up in the good nest. Individual ants did not need to comparatively evaluate both nests in order for the entire colony to make the correct decision.
“On the other hand, animals – including humans – who use comparative evaluation frequently make ‘irrational’ decisions, due to the context in which options are compared or by inconsistently ranking pairs of options, (for example option A preferred to B, B preferred to C but C preferred to A).
How house-hunting ants choose the best home
Direct comparison of alternatives isn’t always the best way to make a decision – at least if you’re an ant. House-hunting rock ants collectively manage to choose the best nest-site without needing to study all their options, according to new research from the University of Bristol.
Dr Elva Robinson and colleagues in the University’s School of Biological Sciences fitted rock ants (Temnothorax albipennis) with tiny radio-frequency identification tags, each measuring 1 / 2,000 (one two-thousandth) the size of a postage stamp, then observed as they chose between a poor nest nearby and a good nest further away.
The ant colonies showed sophisticated nest-site choice, selecting the superior site even though it was nine times further away than the alternative. The best nest was chosen, despite the fact that very few individual ants made direct comparisons between the nest-sites.
When a colony of rock ants needs to emigrate to a new nest, scouting ants first discover new nests and assess them then the scouts recruit nest-mates to the new nest using tandem-running, where an informed ant leads a second ant to her destination. When the number of ants in the new nest reaches a quorum, scouts begin rapid transport of the rest of the colony by carrying nest-mates and brood.
In the Bristol tests, very few ants app eared to make direct comparisons between the two nests by making multiple visits to each before choosing one or the other. However, approximately half (forty-one per cent) of the ants that first visited the near nest later switched to the far nest, whereas only a tiny minority (three per cent) of the ants that first visited the far nest switched to the near nest. This ultimately resulted in the entire colony ending up in the better nest.
Choosing the Proper Ant Bait
You arrive at a home to do a routine service and the customer lets you know they’ve been seeing ants inside. Depending on where you are located, the offending ants could be one of several to many different species. You’ll need to identify the ant because the type or species of ant will determine your approach to inspection and treatment.
Is the ant a soil- or wood-nesting ant or is it opportunistic in nest site selection? Is it a type that is polydomous (many nest sites) or polygynous (many queens)? Is it a species that will respond to baits well enough to affect control? Soil nesting ants will be found near ground level while wood-nesters typically associate with moist wood. Opportunistic species that are polydomous and polygynous are the most difficult ants to control due to the widespread nature of their infestations around structures.
The fastest way to control ants is finding and treating the ant colony or colonies directly which with polydomous species is easier said than done. In most all cases, most of the infestation originates from outside with possible satellite colonies indoors. Even with Pharaoh ants which are primarily nesting indoors, a great deal of foraging is done on the outside of a building.
You’ve identified the ant involved and done your inspection. If you’re dealing with Pharaoh ants and maybe rover ants, you should head straight for the ant baits. For other types of ants, you should first attempt to find and treat the colonies involved and use ant baits as a supplement to treatment. If the colony has been difficult to locate or with a hard-to-solve case, then ant baits become the key tool to select.
Many times, ants may start feeding on a bait then, after a short time, begin ignoring the bait. Ant colonies also have different nutritional needs at different times of the year or by preference. For these reasons, it is a good practice to offer ants two or more different baits, including types of formulations to find out which the target ants prefer. For example, you might offer a drop of 2 different gel baits and 1 or 2 different granular baits. Whichever the ants prefer, give them more of that bait.
WHAT KIND OF ANT SPECIES SHOULD A BEGINNER CHOOSE?
Ant-keeping as a hobby become popular in the past years. Thus, there is a wide variety of ants for sale nowadays. You can find local, European and tropical species – all sorts of ants! What should a novice do in order not to get lost among so many ants species, when you want all at once, and chose the pets? We will try to help solve this issue and understand what type of ants is the most unpretentious.
Messor is the most popular ants that have become true pets
Usually, you can find two types of harvester ants for sale – M. structor (they are black) and M. denticulatus (they have red or orange breast). Messors natural habitat are arid regions with not a large number of living creatures. Their other name – harvesters – gives a clue of the natural ration of these ants. A major part of harvester ants’ ration is seeds of different steppe (and not only) plants and insects play only a marginal role. Every morning (and every evening in the summer) hundreds of foragers go out of Messor’s ant hill that looks like a funnel in the ground. The workers look for seeds that fell on the ground. Messor’s path can spread over ten meters (over 30 feet) and the whole time the ants are using it to carry seeds back to the anthill or to go out to find more seeds. There are big round rooms filled with seeds almost to the ceiling in the harvesters’ nest. They preserve the seeds there preventing it from deteriorating in storage by turning it all the time and biting off sprouts when necessary. The portion of seeds is transported to more humid conditions where they are couched. The soldiers (big ants-workers with large heads) separate grains from the cover and ground them with the help of forceful mandibles in flour. The other ants will later eat this flour.
Polymorphism is the key characteristic of harvesters, but their soldiers don’t usually fight anybody as their goal is to ground the grains. For a successful start of a new colony, you need to give a piece of pumpkin seed or nut as help to a lonely dam that comes off in May. It is not a good idea to give syrup to Messors. When the first ants appear you need to feed them small seeds (like poppy or mustard seeds) and after the soldiers appear you can give them big seeds, they will cope with them. Protein has a positive influence on the colony – don’t forget to feed Messors with a dead insect.
Camponotus (carpenter ants)
It is a great variety of ants in appearance as well as in behavior or habitat.
Polymorphism unites Camponotus: the colony always has small slim workers and massive soldiers with a big head. Unlike harvesters, they are real fighters however young soldiers prefer to hang on the nest’s walls and serve as “honey barrel” – living storage for liquid food that workers pour into them. Adult soldiers help workers hunt, slice pray in pieces with the help of their mandibles and protect the nest from enemies. The workers’ goal is building, food searching and taking care of the brood. A classic dwelling of carpenters is almost always dry wood. European Camponotus vagus, for example, belongs to classic carpenter ants. They are large black ants and as usual for Camponotus colony, it has aggressive ant soldiers. Despite the fact that vaguses are very fascinating, we would not recommend them for beginners. The reason is that all Camponotus need severe cold hibernation that they need to be prepared for. Sometimes seasonal rhythm becomes irregular and vaguses can fall into diapause in the summer when it’s even more difficult to achieve smooth redaction of temperature.
Feeding – young families eat mainly dead insects but adult ones can hunt living insects. Both of these species are easy to take care of at home (as all other ants from our review), but for normal development, the ants need to be fed insects and live in high temperature (25-28 degrees Celsius), after all, their motherland is tropics.
