WEBVTT - Ants! Part 2! 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:03.920 Hey, everybody, chuck here real quick with some bad news 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:07.720 and sad news. Uh. Sketch Fest this year in San Francisco, 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:10.160 which is where we were gonna have our first live 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:12.239 show in two years here in a couple of weeks, 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:16.439 has been postponed. I believe they're looking to postponed it 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:18.560 by a whole year and kind of rebooked the whole 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:22.079 festival ideally, but you know, with what's going on around 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:23.960 the country with Omicron, they didn't feel like they could 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:27.319 press forward, and UH, as bummed as we are, we 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:30.960 think it's the right move as well. So, uh, if 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:34.559 you have tickets, just stay tuned for an announcement. I 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:38.080 think you will either probably be able to well I'm 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:40.680 not exactly sure what's gonna happen with them, maybe a 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:42.879 refund maybe if you hold onto them, they're good for 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:45.960 next year because we're probably gonna look in the same theater. 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:50.280 But listen up for announcement soon. And again, all apologies, 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:53.240 we're super sad about it. We're really looking forward to 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:57.440 getting back out there again. But until further notice, live 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.840 shows are still on hold. All right, now here we 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.720 go with the show. Welcome to stuff you should know 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:13.800 A production of I Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.800 the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck and this is 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:21.480 stuff you should know. Part two about ants, which is 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:25.360 just knocking our socks off, and we we we released 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:27.600 this one on the first one on Tuesday. Chuck, my 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:31.560 socks are still off in its Thursday, that's right. And 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:33.759 you know, if you listen to part one, we tried 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:35.840 to throw in some amazing ant facts and I think 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:38.760 we I think we came through there, but most of 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:40.480 that was a little bit of the nuts and bolts. 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:43.280 I think Part two has got a little bit more 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:47.640 wow factor because we talk a lot about a lot 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:53.280 more even about the social structure of these amazing insects. Yeah. 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:58.200 So ants are great, great example of social speed, social 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:02.360 insect like bees, um, some wasps, but I think there's 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:05.160 plenty of solitary wasps too. But let's say, like bees, 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:08.040 they really kind of resemble bees in that sense. Um. 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:10.720 And despite you know how many ants there are and 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:14.600 how many bees there are, um, apparently social insects um 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:17.880 only make up something like two percent of all insects species. 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:22.440 The rest are um solitary or anti social or drifters, 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:26.800 that kind of thing. So um, at the heart of 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:32.200 any uh social insect society is the queen and usually 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:35.560 chuck the who the whole thing is so hierarchical. There's 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:40.080 just like one queen. Yeah, this is this is the 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:41.720 one part that tripped me up a little bit as 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:44.560 far as they're as as far as that being a 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:49.160 benefit for their survival, I would think, like, hey, more queens, 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:53.440 more eggs, like there should be you know, not all queens, 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:56.600 because obviously I get that queens need a lot of 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:00.320 special care. Um, I mean, I guess let's talk about it. 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:04.000 Because queens get get fed. One reason that makes them 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:08.639 the queen is that they're the only sexually reproductive female 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:11.680 and that's the only thing she does is mate and 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.799 lay tons and tons of eggs. Uh. An army aunt 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:16.920 queen can lay up to three hundred thousand eggs in 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:20.239 a in a few days. Uh. And they're they're bigger, 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.120 like they're just they basically sit around, they mate, they 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:26.720 lay eggs, and they get fed a really protein rich diet, 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:29.320 so they grow up to like, you know, three or 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:31.800 four times the size of all the other ants. Yeah. 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:36.080 And so with the queen, um, they're they're like you 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.520 said that One of the big differences are The difference 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:42.920 UM is that they're they're bigger than other um female ants, 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:46.800 which are worker ants. Genetically, they're basically the same, it's 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:50.880 just that they're much much bigger, which means UM somehow, 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:54.240 I think also from that protein rich diet. They're also 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.560 um they have ovaries that function as well, so they're 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.840 able to reproduce. But that's basically the only two differences. 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:03.880 And that just goes to show you that any um 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:08.920 worker egg can be raised into a queen, right and 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:11.640 we'll see, you know, cases where that might happen. Another 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:15.839 difference is they live a lot longer. The queen ants 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.800 of the Black Garden aunt can live up to thirty 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:23.800 years apparently, Uh, female workers live about a year. And 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:25.760 I guess we can talk a little bit about the males. 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:29.040 The poor male aunt, uh, they only live a week. 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:32.320 They are hatched from unfer They don't even bother to 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:36.120 fertilized eggs. For the males, they had from unfertilized eggs, 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:40.120 whereas all females had from fertilized eggs. And the males, 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.560 you know, they did their thing. They're there too to 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:47.599 impregnate the queen and then they die. There's sex. Sex 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:50.600 slaves is what they are. Yeah, and and David points out, 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:52.839 you know, Dave Russ helped us with this. He said, basically, 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:56.799 almost any ant that you see is probably a female ant. Yeah, 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:00.520 not just because, um, the workers are responsible for doing everything. 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:03.440 But like you said, the lifespan of male land is 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:07.360 so short, the chances of you seeing one are pretty slim, 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:10.159 although as we'll see, there are some some times where 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:13.440 they're on such full spectacular display that you actually may 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:17.400 have seen male lands before. Sure. Yeah, we'll get to 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:20.520 that weirdness in a minute. But the females are the 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:24.560 workers that you know. It's like, uh, where was wonder 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:29.719 woman from? Uh? Amazonia? Amazonia. It's kind of like the 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:33.000 society there. It's just it's all these ladies making things 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:36.320 happen as a big group, all in service to this queen. 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:40.680 And the workers do everything. They've feed and care for 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.120 the young, they feed and care for the queen. They 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:46.479 go out and get the food, they maintain that nest 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:48.920 in the colony, which we'll talk about. It's just remarkable 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:52.000 what they do. Uh. They're the police force, they're the army, 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:57.560 they're the custodians. They do everything. Yeah, so like everything 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:01.479 that has nothing to do with um eating and laying eggs. 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:06.279 That's that's that's the workers doing all that stuff. It's 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.080 pretty cool. And depending on the species, sometimes the workers 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:14.640 are um more specialized than another species. Sometimes they'll be 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:18.039 like major workers who are much larger UM than the 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:21.120 minor workers, so they'll be the ones that go out 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:24.320 and like forage and maybe defend the nest while the 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.440 minor workers, the smaller ones, are left behind to tend 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:30.719 to the the larva and the pup a and um 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:34.440 and basically raise the next generation. So there's there can 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:36.880 be like specialization of what you do as an ant 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:40.280 depending on your size or how you were raised. That's right, 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:44.320 and so uh, it's a very strict castiste and basically 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:47.599 um there's no like working your way up the ladder. 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.120 It seems like you kind of have your job. You're 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:54.680 happy to do it. Um Ants are very happy, emotional 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.159 little insects, right, Yeah, they really wear their hearts on 0:06:58.200 --> 0:06:59.920 their sleeves. You can tell if an ant is having 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:03.200 a bad day. But the good thing about it is 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:05.479 you can cheer them up pretty pretty easily. To just 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:07.600 hold your finger out lit him climb up on your finger. 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:09.800 They find it so delightful and if you have a 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:13.160 little honeydew in your pocket, you can really turn their 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:16.240 day around. Uh. Now, you know we said we mentioned 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:20.040 the males just basically impregnate the queen then die, but 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:24.720 I didn't really quite get this part about the genetics 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:30.400 of the chromosomeal genetics. So basically, a male is just 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:34.640 an egg that has a genome from it his mother 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:40.960 from the queen. Usually the queen um a female is created, 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:45.040 so like that would mean that all unfertilized eggs are males, 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:50.400 and then the queen comes along and fertilizes some select ones. 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.000 And I think it's actually dependent on what the workers 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.840 point out. I think the workers actually decide how many 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.000 new female workers are needed compared to how many males 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.280 are are needed. And then the queen comes along and 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:07.040 fertilizes some proportion of those unfertilized male eggs, and then 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:11.920 those become workers female workers. And then in some cases 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:15.160 when there's not a queen, say a queen died or 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:18.600 something like that, a colony would find itself up the creek. 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:23.480 But apparently there's plenty of ants species where the workers 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:28.400 can actually lay unfertilized male eggs to raise a generation 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:31.600 of males that can mate with a queen that the 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:35.120 um that the workers produce as well, so the workers 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:40.760 can keep a colony from dying off if the queen dies. Yeah. Yeah, 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:43.000 After I saw that some of these queens can live 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:47.080 thirty years, I just became paranoid about like accidentally killing 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:50.200 a queen. But I think that probably doesn't happen because 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:53.280 they're never out there to be stepped on, right, No, 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:56.000 it's it's you pretty much won't have to invade a 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:58.800 nest like you're an exterminator if you're killing the queen. 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.920 Oh man, But that's what they do. I mean, that's 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.720 what they're trying to go after the queen. So yeah, 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:10.400 we're we have um a mole problem in my yard. 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:12.719 And I'm just like, I guess we have a mole 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:15.080 problem because I'm certainly not gonna let somebody come along 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:17.600 and drop m eight s into these mole holes and 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.640 blow them up. But luckily I found a service that 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:24.360 uses something called mole scram and it's just kind of 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.120 like an irritant, but it doesn't actually hurt them in 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:29.040 any way. They just don't want to be around it. 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:31.520 So I'm gonna give that one a try, because they 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:34.600 will mess up your lawn really quickly. I thought you're 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.280 gonna say, a guy comes by with a flute, I 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.160 wish leads them down to your neighbor's out. I just 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:43.320 did our pipe Piper episode as a select so I 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.400 heard it recently and it's really good. But the first 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:51.640 twenty minutes is really odd. It's like oddly like we're 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.880 like challenging one another and it's just really weird. And 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:58.240 then I don't know, we're just like showing off to 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:01.160 another You'll just have to listen to It's it's pretty interesting, 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:05.040 but it really it really um comes out on top. 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:07.360 It's a good episode. Interesting, that's not the stuff you 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:10.199 should know way, I know, That's what I'm saying. It's 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:13.080 it's weird. It's a weird start join episode, but usually 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:17.800 shrink in the face of competition. That's all right. We 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.240 don't challenge each other. You get very strange, all right. 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:23.880 I guess we need to get to the nests here. Um, 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:28.400 this is kind of some of the most remarkable stuff 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:30.320 that you're ever gonna see. I saw this one. Do 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:33.440 yourself a favor go to YouTube and I can't remember 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:36.600 what the search term was, but like amazing, uh aunt 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:39.280 colony or something like that, and it's like a three 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:43.600 minute video where they found uh They wanted to research 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:46.920 what these things look like below ground, and so they 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:51.800 pumped um concrete into the hole. I don't know where 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:56.000 this was. It took ten tons of concrete to fill 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.120 this thing, and then they let it sit for a 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:02.800 month and then they you know, excavated or whatever like 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:06.360 you would a fossil and dig around it and they 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.320 dug out what ended up being. It looked like about 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:13.720 the size of a Little League baseball in field, twenties 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:17.480 six ft deep, a hundred and seventy ft across, and 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:20.600 it was one of the most unbelievable things I've ever seen. 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:23.520 It looked like, literally like an architect had designed it. 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:27.320 Um they were talking about the efficiencies of you know, 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.920 every tube was like it was the shortest route to 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:33.000 get to the next thing. It was like it looked 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.480 like it had been purposefully designed that way. And it's 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:38.400 just the the DNA of these ants that know how 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:41.319 to do this stuff. So, yeah, you you mentioned something 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:44.360 important that the tunnels and the connections they make between 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:46.920 all these chambers, they do tend to be like the 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:51.760 shortest route between them, and ants also apparently will will 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.600 um burrow on these really kind of steep angles, but 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:58.439 they're at the angle of repose, which is the steepest 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.160 angle that's something like pile of dirt or a pile 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:06.000 of sand can maintain without collapsing. And somehow ants just no, like, oh, 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:07.920 this is the angle I need to be to be 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.640 um digging at. Yeah, I saw that one thing you sent, uh, 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:13.720 and I guess we can talk about the force chains here. 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:16.960 It's pretty interesting. But um, when they were studying these ants, 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:20.080 they thought maybe like maybe they're doing like a game 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:23.240 of Jinga when they're making these tunnels where they they 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:25.720 feel a little bit and kind of touch the block 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:28.439 which in this case or little individual grains of sand 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:30.960 or dirt or whatever, to see if it would weaken 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:33.360 the structure. And I think after the end of this 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.840 experiment they were like, no, they're not they're not doing that. 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.760 They are just coded to do this. Yeah, And they 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:42.520 were like, we have no idea how ants know what 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:45.120 little grains of sand or dirt to pull out and 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:48.240 what ones they shouldn't because their load bearing grains. But 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:51.920 they just do and they're really successful at it. And 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.520 what they what they somehow are aware of, is that 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:58.320 there are things called what you said, force chains, where 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.480 if you follow like a force chain of soil or 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:05.520 dirt underground, like in a cross section of ground, um, 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:08.160 those are the things that are holding the soil in place. 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:11.400 And not all of the pieces or grains of dirt 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:14.040 or sand are responsible for holding the soil in place. 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:16.679 So you could conceivably move one and leave another in place, 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:19.240 and that that column of sand or dirt above is 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:23.080 going to stay. In tech somehow ants know what grains 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.840 are load bearing and what grains aren't. And so when 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:30.000 they're doing this, they're actually removing, um the sands that 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:32.079 that aren't part of the force chain. And when they 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:36.160 do chuck, it actually reinforces the structure of the force 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:39.360 chain that it diverts it to the outside of the 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:42.240 tunnel they're digging, which just makes it that much stronger. 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:46.080 And there and again they're not just kind of testing 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.080 it like a game of jinga like that would make sense, 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:49.840 and I see why they thought that might be. What's 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:52.079 happening is like they push a little bit to see 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.000 if anything starts to give, it's again, it's just like 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:57.959 a hundred and thirty million years of practice. Yeah. And 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:01.200 because they're so good at at creating these burrows and 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:05.520 tunnels and chambers that that not only UM maintained, but 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:09.960 also actually reinforced the force chains underground. UM like an 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:13.560 ant colony, a subtraining and colony might hold up for 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:17.440 decades once they dig it out. I felt terrible when 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:19.360 I saw this thing being pumped full of concrete. I 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:22.800 didn't know if it was vacant or you know, there 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:27.680 was some pretty decent pile of dirt on top. But um, 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:29.360 I know you made the point with that stuff he 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:31.120 sent over that it's sort of like the tip of 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:33.840 the iceberg. If you see a little ant hill in 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:36.440 your neighborhood here in the United States, it's you know, 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:39.360 twelve inches across and like sixtright inches. I there's a 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:42.160 lot more going on under the surface. Yeah, I mean 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:45.840 tens of feet underground. Like you said, the size of 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:49.120 a little league field laid out on its side, tipped 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:53.080 up on its end, and buried underground. That's enormous. Yeah, 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:55.000 I mean this thing was huge. It was really really 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:57.360 something Okay, chuck. So we're starting to get a little 0:14:57.360 --> 0:14:59.200 worked up. I think we need to melow out again. 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.320 Do you want to take a break, Yeah, let's do it. Okay, 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:27.880 we'll be right back everybody, all right, So we would 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:29.960 you with a little bit on these ant colonies in 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:33.480 the nest and what's going on underground. I mentioned at 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:36.400 the beginning of episode one, these army ants who don't 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.120 root down in a specific place. They're one of the 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:45.280 only nomadic species, and they go miles and miles, which 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:47.320 is a long long way for a little tiny ant, 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:51.320 up to a million at a time, and to go 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:53.680 to these places, they need to eat a lot of food, 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:59.480 and they basically make what are temporary encampments out of themselves, 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:03.360 you know, kind of like fire ants make a raft 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:06.720 out of themselves. These guys make a bivouac out of themselves. Yeah. 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:09.440 They make a big I mean, look this up again 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:11.760 with these pictures. It's a it looks like a big 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:15.880 ant ball, but I guess it's hollow on the inside, right, Yeah, 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:18.840 And then underneath you've got a bunch of different kinds 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:23.160 of worker ants um raising and directing where to where 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:27.880 to fertilize, and feeding and creating a new generation of 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:32.560 worker ants, and then after that generation is raised to adults, 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:37.640 they break down their bivouac and DeCamp and just keep moving. Unbelievable, 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:41.440 truly remarkable. They also can form super colonies. I know 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.840 that there's a um one kind of ant. It's an 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.680 Argentinian ant that they don't do this in Argentina, but 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:51.920 in Europe they there is one super colony that goes 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:55.520 up the coast from Italy to Spain for thirty seven 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:59.720 hundred miles. That is all technically one, you know, it's 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:03.080 like one big. It's like the Pando of ants. They 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:05.280 just get together with their friends and they're like, hey, 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.560 I know these people are like behind me by ten ft. 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:11.040 You want to meet them? And then that linked up 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:15.480 for thirty seven miles. Yes, all from Italy to Spain 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.639 to northwest Spain. It's just astounding. And you said something 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:22.840 really important. You said that they don't this Argentinian aunt 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:26.359 doesn't do that back in Argentina, and um they looked 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.240 into why, and apparently the reason why is because back 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:33.600 in Argentina they're very genetically diverse, so that that neighbor 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.919 ten feet away is basically an enemy because all of 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:40.000 these ants are trying to preserve their queen's line as 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:43.240 as best they can, So another nest is just a 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:46.280 totally different genetic line, so it's a it's an enemy. 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:49.959 But when they find land somewhere new, like say Italy 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:54.640 or Spain or whatever, that's a much less genetically diverse group. 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:58.720 So as it reproduces, they form nearby colonies that are 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:02.760 pretty similar to the original colony or the last colony. 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:05.520 And so you have these massive super colonies that are 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:09.879 super cooperative because there are basically just extensions of the 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:15.200 queen's genetic line. Wow. Yeah yeah. And apparently ants also 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.560 get from places like Argentina to Italy and have spread 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:22.159 throughout the world largely thanks to humans who use like 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.399 soil and sand as ship's ballast. And then when you 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.520 get to the next place, you unload the ballast and 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:30.760 there's all those ants you dug up from the last 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.960 place you just set sail from. Wow, I don't know 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:36.600 that that's how they gotten around. That's how they think 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:40.240 that the uh, the red imported fire ant came here. 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:43.959 All right, So that's pretty good. Here's another remarkable thing 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:47.960 about ants. Uh Ants don't fly. Generally, everyone knows that 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.080 ants don't have wings. But if a colony is super 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.080 successful and there are too many ants and they're out 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:58.480 growing their own living conditions, they will just grow wings 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.919 and fly up in the air males and females and 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:10.160 have a big mid air right, That's that's what it is. Yeah, 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.040 for sure. They grow wings and they say, all right, 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:15.240 we're gonna have wings now everyone. I know we don't normally, 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:17.240 but we're getting too big, so we're all gonna grow wings. 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:18.600 Then let's go up and fly in the air and 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:22.200 have sex. So so um, when the when the colony 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:24.359 gets too big, there's some sort of signal that the 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:26.720 workers pick up on. They're like, oh, things are getting 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:28.600 a little crowded here. I'm not sure what it is. 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:30.840 Nobody is sure what it is at the moment, but 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.600 there's some signal they pick up on, and so they 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:39.120 start raising a generation of queens, of virgin queens called princesses, 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:44.960 and those princesses um fly off on this Usually it's 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:47.359 not really actually a day, but in some places like 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:50.120 the UK, they celebrated as flying aunt d a kind 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.119 of like how you know when um uh cicadas come 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:55.560 up after like seventeen years here in the States. I 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:57.480 get the impression it's kind of like that, although it 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:00.400 happens every year. Um. And if it's hu it out, 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:02.800 if it's hot out and it rained the night before, 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.360 there's a good chance you're gonna see swarms of flying 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:08.520 ants having air sex. Like you were saying, um, but 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.359 what those are different virgin queens and they're going as 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:15.280 far away from their their nest as possible because that 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:18.919 increases the likelihood that they're going to find, um, some 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:23.720 of the generations of winged male drones that were raised 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:26.480 in other nests, and they're going to have sex, and 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:28.440 then they're going to go off and found their own 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:30.880 nests after that. Now that they've been now that they've 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:33.679 gotten some sperm, that's right, And they can store the 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:36.359 sperm for quite a long time. In some cases, the 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:40.359 queen leafcutter ant can store viable sperm for up to 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:43.959 twenty years and just eat it out a little one 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:46.320 little bit at a time. And these were dave used 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:51.120 and just keep fertilized in generation after generation of eggs. Uh. 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:52.919 And I don't think we said the name of this 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:56.040 air sex there. Actually it's called nuptial flights. Yeah. I 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.760 remember in the Firefly episode they had like nuptial gifts. Yeah. 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:02.600 I was like, we've talked about that somewhere. I looked 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:05.320 it up. It was definitely fireflies. It's pretty amazing. And 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:07.280 then after that, you know, the males, as always, they 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:10.040 die off, and then hopefully you got a bunch of 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:14.040 new colonies. Yeah. If so, this is like the one 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:17.040 time the queen is off on her own for about 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:20.160 two or three weeks. She's like busy founding an entirely 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:23.400 new colony. Um. There's nobody there to feed her. Um. 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:25.959 She's just laying a bunch of eggs and she's choosing 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:29.240 which or fertile, which to fertilize, which not. She's probably 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:31.240 fertilizing most of them because she needs a lot of 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:34.240 workers right then, and not very many male drones to 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:38.200 have sex with, so she's basically just laying in fertilizing 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:42.920 worker eggs, hatches them herself, and then once she successfully 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:45.840 has a generation or two of workers under her belt, 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:48.880 now her colonies got a pretty good chance of becoming 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:51.639 stable because the workers can start to take over. She 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:53.879 can do what she does, which is lay hundreds to 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:57.119 thousands or hundreds of thousands of lay eggs every day, 0:21:57.160 --> 0:21:59.639 that's right. So if you ever see ants flying around, 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:02.880 you know what's going on. Yeah, and they're they're they're not. 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:06.320 Don't confuse them with termites. Apparently they do bear some similarities, 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:08.000 but if you look closely, you can you can tell 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:11.440 the difference. Like just the color alone is a dead giveaway. Yeah, 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:15.000 I think termites are usually kind of white. Yeah, but 0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:19.320 the infestation in your house, it's it's probably termites, Yeah, 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:22.320 because the ants are flying around outside. They don't want 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:24.679 to be inside right now, not for their nuptial flight, 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:27.520 that's right. So that must be like a pretty lonely 0:22:27.600 --> 0:22:30.399 and scary two or three weeks for that that new queen, 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:33.359 you know, I would say, So, I didn't get a 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:35.679 good sense of what the sort of survival rate for 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:38.600 that was. I didn't either. I'll bet it's all over 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:41.200