Father Haskell wrote:
On Aug 21, 4:21 pm, "dadiOH" wrote:
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?

They were carrying off their fallen comrades in order to give them a
proper burial and memorial service.

To the fabled Ants' Graveyard.

No flowers please...

They're jewish?

No, they'd just prefer donations to the UAAVF (United Ants Against Vinegar
Fund).

--

dadiOH
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I do not know most of the ants, but in tropical areas, such as Costa Rica, A leaf cutter ants, which cut a small crescent out of leaves, to work back to the mountains and feed their fungi they cultivate. Since fungal growth, people eat it, take the wasted a bunch of mountains and outside. Surprisingly, complex I think.