How are ant hills formed?

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I’ve seen videos of molten metal being poured into ant hills, and often times they are formed in a very weird shape without any kind of symmetry. Why are they formed like this and how do ants decide when and where to dig?

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Ants do everything through pheromone signals. There is no central coordination, only the chance that if one ant starts doing one thing while leaving a pheromone trail, other ants will follow suit and amplify that trail. So if one ant feel overcrowded and starts digging away somewhere that she thinks has the right humidity and temperature for the needed room, if other ants also feel like the room needs to be built, they will interact with that ants pheromones, find the dig site, and start working away, building a chamber.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Have you ever emptied a room? Where did you put everything? I bet you you put it just as far outside the room as you absolutely had to. That’s how. Ants just toss spare dirt out of the hole