Don’t step on those ants! They are too much like us

In my younger years, many moons ago, I was Den Mother for a local Cub Scout Pack. One of our projects was to make a wooden frame enclosed with two plates of glass and filled with sand. The device held a handful of ants so we could watch and learn the cycle of their life as they dug their maze of tunnels.

As many times as I have been stung by ants while walking barefoot and being used to observing their hard work, I thought I knew all I needed to know about them. But I decided to Google them anyway.

The first two sentences from Wikipedia defining the creatures almost takes a PhD in entomology to understand the lingo: “Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera.” Wow, now that’s a mouthful!

First off, ‘eusocial’ is an adjective concerning animal behavior of or relating to a form of insect society, as that of ants, characterized by specialization of tasks and cooperative care of the young. Too bad more male adult humans aren’t placed in this same category.

Secondly, all ‘hymenoptera’, meaning consisting of membrane and wings, have a complete metamorphosis, and their habits and instincts are as a rule, very highly specialized.

So much for my Googling. I’ll just stick to my handy, dependable World Book Encyclopedia, which, to me, lends more understandable knowledge on a subject for a regular, common sense person like me. For example, under the heading of ‘ANTS’ the first paragraph reads: “The ant is one of the most gifted of all insects. Some of its ways are very much like ours. The ants, like man does not live alone. It lives and works with other ants in large groups called colonies.” Now, that’s a lot more understandable and to the point. I almost feel a kinship with the little buggers.

Their colonies, much like our cities, have hundreds to thousands living together, all with various jobs. Some feed and care for the young while others keep the nest clean or store away for food. Still others guard the entrances to the nest. Being very clever, they build their nest where food is obtainable, whether it’s under city sidewalks, in the tops of trees, in the ground or in wood used for buildings.

Being a ‘social’ insect, they live together and share both their food and work. They are comprised of three classes: female ants or queens, the male ants and the workers, which, by the way are the female ants that never mate. The male ants do none of the work in the nest. My, my, how ‘macho’ can you get when their only duty is to mate with the queen. However, shortly after they mate with the queen they die.

The queen then crawls until she finds a place to start a new home. After several days and nights of steady work, she digs a tunnel in the ground with a small room at the end where she will seal herself in, lay her eggs there and watch over them.

Meanwhile, the wing muscles, that once supported her wings when she flew in the air during her mating period, are inside her thorax where they slowly disappear and turn into fat. This fat turns into the liquid in the queens’ mouth — called saliva — that she will later use to feed her young. Those young only take a few days to hatch after the queen lays her eggs.

These small, worm-like creatures are called larva. As they grow, they become a ‘pupa’ and then, only after a few days, they shed their skins to become worker ants. So another life cycle of ants begins.

These insects are quite interesting in other ways. For instance, despite being such a small insect, they are strong enough to haul away from the nest trash that is triple their size. Their legs are so strong and quick that they can move very rapidly. It is said that if a man could run as fast for his size as an ant can, he could out run the fastest horse. That’s really putting-the-pedal-to-the-metal!

The queen, in her old age, is cared for by the worker ants who feed her, keep her clean and guard her from enemies. She may live to be 15 years old. Few other insects live this long.

Another oddity is that unlike many other insects that die in the winter, ants spend the winter asleep underground. When spring comes, they awaken and take up the duties in the nest just as before.

And life goes on.

This story was originally published May 4, 2017 at 6:39 AM with the headline "Don’t step on those ants! They are too much like us."