ANTS!

[David Shilman]

This morning between 6:15 and 7:15, in three different areas, I saw large concentrations of small red ants.  I've seen "piles" of them before, maybe the size of a fist, but these were much bigger.

In two spots, they spanned the width of a asphalt walking path.  It was like a river of ants.  Does anyone know what causes this, and why today specifically?  (These weren't just lines of ants, but "rivers", many ants deep in places.)

Thanks,

David Shilman
Toronto, ON

[Julia]

Did some of them have wings?  I've noticed this through casual observation, that there are usually a couple of nights a year where all the ants in the neighbourhood come out to have a send-off party for their new queens and their males.  Usually I'll notice more than one nest doing this on the same day, so I wonder if the co-ordination is some way of ensuring genetic diversity or if it's just co-incidental and they just go by weather conditions or moon phases or something.   (Let's not read into this too much, Julia, says the voice of the collective hive)

Julia

[Leslie Kinrys]

There was a recent article in the "Toronto Star" about the ant piles. These are Pavement Ants. When you a see a pile there is actually a war going on between different nests. It was a very interesting article.

[accipiter]

Below you will find a link to the article about ants:
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&as_qd ... arch&meta=



Mike

[David Shilman]

Hey cool, thanks for that, everyone.  Next time I'll have to take a closer look, perhaps with a magnifying glass.

David

[Axeman]

The ant behaviour and the ants sounds a lot like T. caespitum but they are more blackish than red....

The big mass of winged ants are sexuals (m and f)....they're on what is called a nuptial flight. Each species has a specific date when this happens (not exact)...after mating, the males die and the females go on to hopefully found a colony.

I did my M.Sc. with a group of "slave-making" ants -- next time you're out in the woods, check out old acorns, particularly those with a hole in them. The hole is made by a moth -- they lay their eggs in acorns and the larva will eat the "meat" of the acorn and then when its ready to eclose, it makes a nice round hole to get out. This leaves a hollowed out acorn with a nice entrance. The slave-making ants I worked with live are just one of several species that make these acorns their nests.

[Marnie]

I took some pictures of an "ant pile" last summer, although I was a bit reluctant to get too close! I couldn't help admiring the sculpture they created on the sidewalk. (Note AA battery for scale.)