# Ants stretch and yawn when they wake up. True?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ants-stretch-and-yawn-when-they-wake-up-true/120149>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 22, 2002, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ants-stretch-and-yawn-when-they-wake-up-true/120149 "2002-07-22T01:24:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ants-stretch-and-yawn-when-they-wake-up-true/120149/1 "2002-07-22T01:24:40Z")

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I remember hearing this somewhere - that ants stretch and yawn, just like humans do, before they start their day’s work. It sounds a bit suspect to me.

Anyone got the straight dope on ants?

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**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ants-stretch-and-yawn-when-they-wake-up-true/120149/2 "2002-07-22T02:05:04Z")

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Argh, I made a cool post and the board ate it…

Anyway, I did a Google search for _ants yawn_ and came up with mostly “Useless Trivia” sites. One [site](http://members.aol.com/oddwonder/invert.htm) did provide a cite (Actually, two - 1980 Farmer’s Almanac and “2001 Useless Facts”) but it still sounds kind of fishy.

There is a web site called [www.myrmecology.org](http://www.myrmecology.org) that has a message board (all about ants!). Maybe if no one here knows, you could ask there and report back.

I bet with the popularity of ant farms, someone’s gotta be able to confirm or deny this.

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**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ants-stretch-and-yawn-when-they-wake-up-true/120149/3 "2002-07-22T02:08:32Z")

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Well, ants have no lungs so they can’t yawn. I doubt that they even sleep.

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**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ants-stretch-and-yawn-when-they-wake-up-true/120149/4 "2002-07-22T02:09:57Z")

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Ants breath through spiracles on the sides of their abdomen, as do all other insects. A yawn for an insect would not look similar to a yawn for a vertebrate.

I cannot say whether ants stretch their limbs (including mandibles) upon awakening.