# Could ants be used to process garbage?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 1, 2012, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482 "2012-05-01T04:48:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wotdazog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wotdazog)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482/1 "2012-05-01T04:48:33Z")
Hi SDs
Say for instance I have an ant colony transplanted into my backyard (either a relocated wild nest or a cultured nest). Could a healthy colony or two be useful in disposing of spoiled foods quickly, cleanly and cheaply?
I’d want them somehow outside (with a good amount of distance between house and critters!) but also boxed in such a way to prevent emergent satellite nests from appearing elsewhere. Figure that with a choice of ant you’d want something with a tendency for big numbers and diverse appetites. It’s not the rare farmer who can tell you big nests can utterly devour dead sheep and cattle, so thats my foundation for the project.
Then feed them with whatever you would normally throw out that they could munch on. Will it work? I’m prepared to let go of the ‘quickly’ part if it means the other two are in play.
Have a happy hungry hive time.
Wotdazog
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### Author:  [@Recycle\_Fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recycle_Fan)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482/2 "2012-05-01T04:59:36Z")
Well seeing how long it takes ants to eat a banana peal in this video I would think it’s not a good solution
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTD_IhbKG9s)
For them to eat the remains of what has been left over by you would take a long time!
Also don’t ants build tunnels underground? Keeping them fenced in would be very hard.
Maybe worms, ants AND the plastic eating microbe ([Boy Discovers Microbe That Eats Plastic](http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/blogs/boy-discovers-microbe-that-eats-plastic)) is a better solution. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482/3 "2012-05-01T12:21:01Z")
> [@Wotdazog](#):
>
> I’d want them somehow outside (with a good amount of distance between house and critters!) but also boxed in such a way to prevent emergent satellite nests from appearing elsewhere.
Ah, yes, of course! It’s not like anybody has ever tried to prevent ants from spreading. And combine that with abundant food. What could possibly go wrong? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482/4 "2012-05-01T12:25:53Z")
You know, you can buy individual household-sized kits earthworms to do this with earthworms, right inside your house. (Look up vermicomposting)
So while ants might work, we already have a proven solution using a different type of animal.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482/5 "2012-05-01T12:46:47Z")
What would be the benefit of such a scheme? It’s not particularly ‘green’, as anything that digests organic waste is going to produce CO2 or methane and release it into the atmosphere - better to grind up the waste and feed it to a bacterial digester - capture the methane it produces for fuel\* and the digested waste as soil conditioner.
\*still ends up in the environment, but at least we’d get some use out of it on the way.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482/6 "2012-05-01T14:22:25Z")
compost has microbes and worms (build it and the will come) which decompose organic material at a fairly rapid rate (months). it can be done on a small scale, is really inexpensive (make a pile), can be started and stopped at any time.
i have ant hills all over the place in lawn areas. they move. ants don’t seem to find the compost pile as a good food source that i’ve seen.
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### Author:  [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482/7 "2012-05-01T17:31:10Z")
> [@Recycle\_Fan](#):
>
> Well seeing how long it takes ants to eat a banana peal in this video I would think it’s not a good solution
> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTD\_IhbKG9s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTD_IhbKG9s)
> For them to eat the remains of what has been left over by you would take a long time!
Come on, think big. [These guys](http://www.securitycurve.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/them.jpg) could handle the garbage easily.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482/8 "2012-05-01T19:33:07Z")
On the other hand, if you have an ant species that can replenish its ranks readily and indefinitely, you could feed the garbage to the ants, then harvest some of the ants either to be processed into food for humans directly (if you can persuade the humans to eat ant-cake), or fed to chickens or fish. Lots of inefficiencies in there, but if it’s essentially a waste disposal problem, then any gain out of it is better than none.
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### Author:  [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482/9 "2012-05-01T19:41:27Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> What would be the benefit of such a scheme? It’s not particularly ‘green’, as anything that digests organic waste is going to produce CO2 or methane and release it into the atmosphere - better to grind up the waste and feed it to a bacterial digester - capture the methane it produces for fuel\* and the digested waste as soil conditioner.
>
> \*still ends up in the environment, but at least we’d get some use out of it on the way.
It’s better than a landfill, plus where did you think the carbon came from in the first place? Fossil fuels may be extensively used to grow food, but the food itself isn’t made out of FFs (except for some chemicals, but not the majority). The decomposed remains (or if from ants, their poop) can also be used as organic fertilizer (as opposed to synthetic FF based fertilizers).
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482/10 "2012-05-01T20:12:09Z")
> [@Michael63129](#):
>
> It’s better than a landfill
Might be, might not be - in a landfill, some of the carbon could be sequestered.
> [@](#):
>
> plus where did you think the carbon came from in the first place?
Doesn’t matter where it _came from_. If you permanently sequester X kilograms of carbon that came out of the atmosphere via photosynthesis (that is, as opposed to just releasing it back), that’s X kilos of fossil carbon you get to play with instead, if anyone is counting.
But I’m not sure anyone _is_ counting, which is why I asked: “What would be the benefit of such a scheme?” - i.e. _what is the actual objective here?_ - is it environmental, convenience, etc?
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482/11 "2012-05-01T20:24:25Z")
Herding ants is much more difficult than herding cats.
Ever endured an ant bite? A fire any bite? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482/12 "2012-05-01T20:55:28Z")
Just get a compost pile going. I had an ant colony move into mine two years ago, but they didn’t like it when I poke them repeatedly with my pitchfork, turning the pile. They moved out.
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### Author:  [@Wotdazog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wotdazog)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2012, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482/13 "2012-05-02T12:08:09Z")
Straight dopers thanks for the replying.
I probably should have included in my op that I know micro beasts and worms work very well already, if even theoretically always better than any possible ant set up. I just want to feel that if the ants can get close enough, itd be worth it just to see the machinations of a huge and complicated system of nature slowly grind away on the rank ass lettuce prior found in the bottom of the refridgerator. Who said pet hive beasts can’t be both bitching and useful (if technically out competed) at the same time?
I also mean for the ants to atleast be completely unable to roam free of the confines of a box like structure implanted into the ground outdoors. Access to a full days sun and ample viewing, with a shell of sturdy material extending beneath the ground. Think it to be something like putting a build a kit ant nest in the ground. Only bigger and better engineered.
Wotdazog
Edit: Typo
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### Author:  [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2012, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-ants-be-used-to-process-garbage/620482/14 "2012-05-02T12:22:03Z")
Ants probably aren’t going to do the job though. Hissing cockroaches or Dubia roaches eat a wide variety of foods, do not fly, are easily contained, and are an excellent food source for reptiles and other insect eaters. They are not pest species associated with humans either. If you’ve got a local exotic pet store they’d most likely buy the excess colony off you to feed their animals.