21 replies to this topic

[futurebird]

Picking back up on this old thread, I still want to make an "ant myths" video, so I'm trying to consolidate a list. Everyone has seen an ant in their life, grown up with ants where they played, had some superficial contact with these little creatures... so it's remarkable to me how many misconceptions and myths still float around about ants. I thought I'd list a few and see if ya'll had any to add.

1. The queen ant is "in charge" of the colony. The queen ant is bossy.  Ants are assigned jobs, have orders to follow.
2. All red ants are "fire ants" and will sting ya'
3. Since all ants love sugar they could thrive on a diet of nothing but sweets. (is this even true of *any* species? eg. you give them nothing but soda and candy and they *thrive*?)
4. Most workers are all male, or workers are an even split of male and female.
5. Any little white thing in an ant nest is an "ant egg" (eg. cocoon and larvae are "ant eggs")
6. Termites are a kind of ant that's white or light brown.
7. Ants are solitary, as most insects are. (!)
8. There is a species of ant called "winged ants" and they fly in swarms.
9. Carpenter ants eat wood as food. Carpenter ants can easily (and often) will chew up healthy hardwoods, fresh lumber, quality furniture...any wood is at their mercy. 
10. ALL ants are unable to see red light. (so red film works for ALL ants)
11. You can catch a bunch of workers of any species of ant and put them in a jar and after a long time one of the workers will turn into a queen.
12. Ants never sleep.
13.  Army ants can kill and eat a cow.
14. Putting a skull on an ant hill under a bucket is a good way to clean it.
15. Ants have a mouth directly between their mandibles. (it's between the mandibles but more under the head.)
16. Ants can eat chunks of solid food. (all food must fit in the tiny mouth and through the super tiny waist, so ants can only eat puddings, tiny particles and liquids)
17. "King" ants generally live with the queen.
18.  Minors are "baby ants"
19. Every ant in a colony works hard all the time to achieve their goal.
20. There is NO such thing as winged ants!
21. harvester ants are fire ants
22. leafcutter ants are gathering leaves to eat them
23. If you see ants in your garden you should ALWAYS panic and try to get rid of them.
24. If army ants accidentally lead their trail in a circle they will walk in a circle in a "death march" until all of the ants are dead.
25. Since black ants are pretty harmless to people they will be nice to other insects you house with them. 
26.  Ants carry things with their front two legs.
27. Every worker ant is assigned a job at birth and just does only that one job.
28. Queens can lay special eggs that will determine if a worker is a minor or a major. 
29. All ant colonies have only one queen.
30. When ants of the same species meet it will ALWAYS start a war. 
31. If you feed ants cornmeal they will explode
32. peony buds won't open unless ants nibble on them
33. Ants put junk food like sugary cereals in their trash pile with dead ants because they can detect that the artificial colors and flavors are toxic. 
34. Weaver ants are leafcutter ants are the same species, or otherwise confusing these two very different and remarkable tropical ants. 

Any suggestions for changes? Additions?

Edited by futurebird, August 21 2022 - 4:39 PM.

[SYUTEO]

Add "weaver ants are leafcutter ants", I hear this so often, even a children's book got this wrong.

[Serafine]

Since all ants love sugar they could thrive on a diet of nothing but sweets. (is this even true of *any* species? eg. you give them nothing but soda and candy and they *thrive*?)
There are some ant species who live exclusively from the excretions of little plantsuckers they care for but those of course don't just poop raw sugars.
 

There is a species of ant called "winged ants" and they fly in swarms.
Yep. That's wasps (the social ones).
 

ALL ants are unable to see red light. (so red film works for ALL ants)
There is no actual biological data confirming ants have receptors for red light, so this *may* technically be true (except for the Formica cunicularia one they're all behavioral studies).
There is however ONE study with Formica cunicularia and it revealed that this ant can detect bright red light - with an a photon trap add-on to its green receptor. So it technically sees red light as green.
 

You can catch a bunch of workers of any species of ant and put them in a jar and after a long time one of the workers will turn into a queen.
While this is obviously nonsense (unless you have a gamergate species) the workers of many ants can lay haploid eggs that grow into males. So for a newbie this error/myth is kinda understandable.
 

Since black ants are pretty harmless to people they will be nice to other insects you house with them.
Haha, that's a good one. Lasius niger wants to invite all their neighbours for dinner (the neighbours ARE the dinner).
 

Ants carry things with their front two legs.
The funny thing is they can actually GRAB stuff with their front legs. It's better visible with roaches but ants do it, too.
 

Queens can lay special eggs that will determine if a worker is a minor or a major.
While caste determination is generally a very complicated process this is actually true for certain species of ants (I remember a study about Pheidole where eggs can be pre-determined but still be overriden by other regulatory mechanisms like soldier pheromone feedback loops).

[PurdueEntomology]

Actually, Platythyrea without being gamergates can through thelytokous parthenogenesis produce clones, and can even produce males, without having mated!!. Remember, gamergates are workers that mate hence a form of sexual reproduction while parthenogenesis is without sexual reproduction.  A study with Pheidole pallidula produced larger workers, soldiers, by the influence of con-specific foreign colonies (same species colonies) and the competitive advantage of having more soldiers.  One study found that imaginal wing discs in larvae (Pheidole) are important to soldier development, not nutrition nor hormones, which had been commonly perceived as casual agents, but soldiers do produce a pheromone which inhibits the imaginal wing disc influence soldier numbers so  ~5-10% of population, the optimum, is maintained. Upshot, ants are more complicated than we have often considered.  

[Leptomyrmx]

Another one is that ant bites can cause a lot of pain, and most people don't seem to know that ants have stingers.

[Max_Connor]

35. Gammarus is a good source of protein for ants (actually, ants get little to no protein from it)

[Serafine]

Another one is that ant bites can cause a lot of pain, and most people don't seem to know that ants have stingers.

That really depends on the ant species though, I do not want to get bitten by large Messor species (the ones that can crack stuff like sunflower seeds), Pheidole sinica or Dorylus.

[FloridaAnts]

Another one is that ant bites can cause a lot of pain, and most people don't seem to know that ants have stingers.

That really depends on the ant species though, I do not want to get bitten by large Messor species (the ones that can crack stuff like sunflower seeds), Pheidole sinica or Dorylus.

*Atta major stalking you in distance*

Edited by FloridaAnts, August 22 2022 - 7:57 AM.

[Jonathan5608]

When I was a little kid we used to have Camponotus pennsylvanicus in our home and when they flew they would land in my cats water dish. So when I was little I always thought that winged ants were workers instead of Queens and drones.

[FinWins]

My dad is convinced that a Monomorium minimum or lasius neoniger bit him and that it hurt but that is impossible? Right?

[futurebird]

My dad is convinced that a Monomorium minimum or lasius neoniger bit him and that it hurt but that is impossible? Right?

Seems unlikely. Unless he had a small cut or abrasion on his skin and it was the sting of formic acid which feels like antiseptic on a wound?
Another possibility is if the ant bit at the cuticle of the nail or some other place where the skin is thin?

[FinWins]

 

My dad is convinced that a Monomorium minimum or lasius neoniger bit him and that it hurt but that is impossible? Right?

Seems unlikely. Unless he had a small cut or abrasion on his skin and it was the sting of formic acid which feels like antiseptic on a wound?
Another possibility is if the ant bit at the cuticle of the nail or some other place where the skin is thin?

I have lots of S. xyloni around my house so I think it was one of those.

[futurebird]

More "misANTformation" this time from a Natural History encyclopedia from 1890. You can read it here.



Social carrying? No, this is clearly an ant being place under arrest by a "police ant."



Of course ants fight, but... standing up like this? And the one seems to be collapsed as if in mourning over the whole battle.



For the longest time it seems ant trash pits were mistaken for graveyards. Have you ever seen one this orderly?



 

[Leptomyrmx]

 

Another one is that ant bites can cause a lot of pain, and most people don't seem to know that ants have stingers.

That really depends on the ant species though, I do not want to get bitten by large Messor species (the ones that can crack stuff like sunflower seeds), Pheidole sinica or Dorylus.

 

 

Yeah, that is true. Camponotus nigriceps majors are not fun, especially when they bite you on your toe. It's just I hear people saying things like 'bullet ant bite' and 'bull ant bite', things like that.

[futurebird]

OK. I've found it. THE WORST ant video on youTube. 

I started writing a comment about all the species they had the incorrect image for.... but gave up. It would take less time to say what they got right. 

I'd love to see a size comparison with ants. I'd totally buy a high quality poster that showed ants of all different sizes to scale...









There is no need to watch this video, these stills should tell you how bad it is. I think it might be computer generated with the images just pulled out of google... that's the only way I can fathom it having so many errors. If you really want to look here is the link... but consider just not giving them any views. 

 

Edited by futurebird, August 23 2022 - 9:04 PM.

[bmb1bee]

My dad is convinced that a Monomorium minimum or lasius neoniger bit him and that it hurt but that is impossible? Right?

I've actually been bitten by a Monomorium ergatogyna worker before and it was surprisingly painful, like a tiny brief poke from a sewing needle. Not sure if it was because of the actual bite or the stinger though.

[bmb1bee]

OK. I've found it. THE WORST ant video on youTube. 

I started writing a comment about all the species they had the incorrect image for.... but gave up. It would take less time to say what they got right. 

I'd love to see a size comparison with ants. I'd totally buy a high quality poster that showed ants of all different sizes to scale...

There is no need to watch this video, these stills should tell you how bad it is. I think it might be computer generated with the images just pulled out of google... that's the only way I can fathom it having so many errors. If you really want to look ">here is the link... but consider just not giving them any views. 

I have one like yours too:

 

 

50% of the ants here are misidentified, can you guess which ones?

[FinWins]

 

OK. I've found it. THE WORST ant video on youTube. 

I started writing a comment about all the species they had the incorrect image for.... but gave up. It would take less time to say what they got right. 

I'd love to see a size comparison with ants. I'd totally buy a high quality poster that showed ants of all different sizes to scale...

There is no need to watch this video, these stills should tell you how bad it is. I think it might be computer generated with the images just pulled out of google... that's the only way I can fathom it having so many errors. If you really want to look ">here is the link... but consider just not giving them any views. 

I have one like yours too:

 

 

50% of the ants here are misidentified, can you guess which ones?

 

The “pavement ant” is a Formica species all the others seem to be correct though 

[futurebird]

The thorax on the carpenter ant looks a little off... It looks like it has two bumps like a formica sp. but it's too small of a photo to tell. 

[bmb1bee]

The thorax on the carpenter ant looks a little off... It looks like it has two bumps like a formica sp. but it's too small of a photo to tell. 

The "odorous ants" look pretty sus to me. That does not look like a Tapinoma worker.