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Ant Hell


DrGravitas
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http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/09/bizarre-ant-colony-discovered-in-an-abandoned-polish-nuclear-weapons-bunker/

In an abandoned nuclear bunker in Poland, ants have colonized a hellish space through a bizarre distortion of a typical ant colony. Living on near constant starvation, a colony with no queens and no males persists. It is not a fire and brimstone hell but a dark, cold ninth-circle of hell spent largely on the one colony activity left intact: moving the dead to the colony edges.

A starved existence with no clearly-identified food source, surrounded by mountains of the dead. Yet, the colony persists through the year to be replenished by a rain of fresh workers who fall down a rusted ventilation pipe by the annual expansion of the normal colony living on the earthen surface above.

 

It's easy to think of an ant colony as its own standalone thing, but it is in fact a generative property of ant biology. This ant hell colony, I think, is a fascinating reminder of this and a keen look into how the mechanics and rules governing ant social systems, applied in such an alien environment, leads to a distorted yet still stable colony system. Very useful for illustrating the true nature of disease and symptoms in biological systems and perhaps for reflecting on human social systems in extreme conditions as well...

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Well they either work together, or they die. Even ants aren't so stupid that they'd refuse to cooperate with each other in such a situation. Humans also cooperate to ensure their mutual survival in such situations, so there isn't much of a difference. We all do what we must to go on living, especially when death is all around us.

It actually reminds me of the concentration camps....

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4 minutes ago, Ieono said:

Well they either work together, or they die. Even ants aren't so stupid that they'd refuse to cooperate with each other in such a situation. Humans also cooperate to ensure their mutual survival in such situations, so there isn't much of a difference. We all do what we must to go on living, especially when death is all around us.

It actually reminds me of the concentration camps....

Ants are this stupid actually. They often get trapped in 'death spirals' in which all the ants are following each other in one big circle until they starve to death.

tumblr_inline_nxpkh6nfHQ1sjh1ps_500.gif

 

 

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Just now, Saxon said:

Ants are this stupid actually. They often get trapped in 'death spirals' in which all the ants are following each other in one big circle until they starve to death.

tumblr_inline_nxpkh6nfHQ1sjh1ps_500.gif

 

 

Well, that may be a tragic byproduct, but I think that being hardwired to cooperate (even to death) is pretty neato. 

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I remember watching ants one time when I was seven or something, there was a colony of tiny brown ants and all the winged males and new queens were crawling up onto the ground and then flying off.

There was another colony of slightly larger black ants nearby and after a while they found the brown ants. What followed was this brutal parade of the bigger ants latching onto the smaller new queens and males as they crawled up out of the ground and then they dragged them off back to their own.

It was hectic and may have mildly traumatized me for a few weeks.

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9 minutes ago, 6tails said:

Those of you who like ants have probably never lived in fireanthkingdom Texas before.

Southern U.S. is just a great place for everything that annoys you but doesn't kill you. It's the hell version of Australia/Africa. At least there you're allowed to die.

In Louisiana there are spiders and roaches everywhere. It's not uncommon for them to be crawling around you while you sleep.

It being hot doesn't help insect problems either. Funny thing is, there is a 4 foot long 2 foot wide ant pile near my school and another near my house. I walk past it every day watching it grow. They grow fast in the summer.

After getting bit by the little red pricks at least 8 times a day, you get used to it. 

Just kidding, hell is more fun than this place. Get me out of here please.

image.jpeg

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Ants are terrible when they invade your house. When I was little, we had ant issues. I remember taking a bath once and a big winged ant landing on my arm. I looked over the side of the tub to find a whole swarm of ants, both tiny wingless and huge winged. Scared the shit out of me.

Ant hell isn't so bad an existence for them.

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10 hours ago, LazerMaster5 said:

Ants are terrible when they invade your house. When I was little, we had ant issues. I remember taking a bath once and a big winged ant landing on my arm. I looked over the side of the tub to find a whole swarm of ants, both tiny wingless and huge winged. Scared the shit out of me.

Ant hell isn't so bad an existence for them.

Is that it? I used to wake up with ant shit all over my pillow and head, sometimes them crawling all over both, sometimes I still do.

Ant hell is to good for them.

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On 9/2/2016 at 1:51 PM, Saxon said:

Ants are this stupid actually. They often get trapped in 'death spirals' in which all the ants are following each other in one big circle until they starve to death.

tumblr_inline_nxpkh6nfHQ1sjh1ps_500.gif

To clarify, they don't do this out of stupidity, but because they're blind! Ants track movement of other ants through pheromones. An ant releases a scent trail as it moves, and this is how it alerts other ants to follow it, in order to find food and bring it back to the colony. This is why when you leave an apple out on the ground, a huge swarm of ants will cover it, taking piece by piece and using their sense of smell to follow a trail back to the colony

unfortunately an ant death spiral forms as a natural fluke in the system. A few ants might get caught in a loop following each other, spinning in a circle. Their scent trail becomes more robust, and others might get caught in the scent of it. Eventually an entire colony might be caught in a spiral like this, everyone following eachother, hurrying the pace as they feel themselves growing tired are the urgency increases. In the picture you linked these ants are all rather terrified and close to dying, knowing that they can't go on much longer and blindly following the others hoping to get home

Eventually they will all be dead, but they die from exhaustion and overheating much sooner than from starvation :3

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