On Aug 21, 9:01 am, Donita Luddington wrote:
Are ants cannibals?

A huge trail of ants (many hundreds) was on my kitchen counter last night
so I sprayed them with vinnegar (I was out of windex so I used vinnegar
instead). Being late, and wishing the vinnegar to discourage new foragers,
I retired for the evening.

Much to my chagrin, another, even larger swarm of Argentine ants had taken
over my counter top, this morning - and the dead ants seem to have
disappeared. I was surprised.

So, I sprayed 'em again and left the area for a while. Sure enough, yet
another swarm replaced the second, and I noticed some carrying away the
dead bodies of their camerades.

My question..... Are ants cannibals or did the inadvertant pickling entice
them to cannibalism?

In my experience they are cannibals. I have seen them eat horn worms,
crickets and a snake. Let me say for the record all of these were
Outside, not inside.

MJ