We’ve got some big black ants living in our house. When we see them we kill them. But, sometimes, I’ll see one big black ant carrying a dead big black ant around.
Why ? Are they cannibals ? Are they burying their dead ? What’s going on here ?
Thanks.
Ants are great scavengers and hunters. I’d guess Brother Ant just became bon appetit.
Ants carry the dead to a pile.
The pile puts rotting corpses in one place. It also is a beneficial behavior for ants to take this action because it keeps their work area/tunnels clear.
Clearly, it’s in thier best interest to pile the dead up. HAving this behavior passed on is beneficial to the survival of the ants.
Also… Google: ants carry dead
Wait until you find their cemetary, with all those teeny little gravestones.
Actually, ants carry their dead to a common “trash dump”. The behavior is programmed into them to keep dead ants from cluttering up the ant hill. There’s a chemical cue involved - supposedly a live ant can be painted with it, and the other ants will repeatedly drag it, struggling, to the “dump” until the chemical wears off.
If you have “big black ants” around, you might want to make sure they aren’t carpenter ants.