WEBVTT - Ants! Part 1! 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:03.920 Hey, everybody, chuck here real quick with some bad news 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:07.680 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 --> 0:00:24.000 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 --> 0:00:40.600 not exactly sure what's going to happen with them, maybe 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:42.760 a refund maybe if you hold onto them, they're good 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:45.479 for next year because we're probably gonna look in the 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:49.200 same theater. But listen up for announcement soon. And again, 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:52.920 all apologies, we're super sad about it. We're really looking 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:56.560 forward to getting back out there again. But until further notice, 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:00.720 live shows are still on hold. All right, now here 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:04.919 we go with the show. Welcome to stuff you should 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:14.080 know A production of I Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:16.920 to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:19.679 Chuck Brian over there, and this is stuff you should know, 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.720 um one that I'm super super excited about and didn't 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:27.240 realize that I would be this excited about Chuck because 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:30.000 this is a Chuck pick and hats off to you, sir. 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.760 I'm surprised that, uh had you just never really thought 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:37.160 about ants much? Yeah, I mean I've looked at them before, 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:40.880 but I've never really researched him. I guess I've I've 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:44.040 seen documentaries and then that of course, the animated cartoon 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:48.120 Ants years ago kind of got me into it. And 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:50.560 I feel like every time I've watched a Nature documentary 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:53.840 about ants, I'm just like continually amazed. Yeah, I mean 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:55.960 they are like amazing. I knew they were amazing, I 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:58.720 just had no idea how amazing they were. Like so 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:03.400 much so we could conceivably do a spinoff podcast on 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:07.800 just ants, if you ask me, I'm willing to do that. 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:11.000 I'm just putting it out there right now. Hey, you 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:12.960 have fun and knock yourself out. No, no, it has 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:15.040 to bebably the first one to subscribe it has to 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:18.160 be both of us, I'm afraid. Uh, we do need 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:22.960 to thank the original inspiration for this though, Joey from Tucson. 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:28.440 Oh you remember that? Oh yeah, what was that a 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.320 listener mail that came in? No, this was during our 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:34.880 co Ed Oh yes, yes, yes, our friends at co 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:40.600 ed auctioned off a zoom with Josh and I and 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:42.840 some people were kind enough to donate some money and 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:45.639 we had a zoom and we hung out with everyone 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:49.840 and and and shot the s and Joey and his 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:52.840 mom were on there from Tucson, and Joey said, why 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:56.040 don't you do one on ants? And I said, all right, Joey, 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.200 we'll do one on ants. Yeah, and that's gonna be 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:00.000 a good one because joe is gonna get his money's 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:03.120 worth on this. But we're doing Joey, not just one 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:06.320 part on ants. We're doing a two parter on ants. 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:11.280 That's how cool they are. It's a doublet because you 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:15.360 know ants, like you said, we could do a four parter. Yeah. 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:17.880 So just to kind of start like people I think 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:21.160 can very easily take ants for granted, they're very small. Uh, 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:23.480 they kind of typically mind their own business unless you 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:25.600 step in one of their nests, and there they happen 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:30.160 to be um uh imported red fire ants um which 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:32.839 you do not want to mess with UM. So they're 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:34.880 just kind of easy to overlook. But when you start 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.320 to kind of dig into things like the number of 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:40.640 ants on Earth or the kind of things they're responsible 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:43.680 for on Earth, you come to realize, like, ants actually 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:50.280 pretty much dominate the terrestrial ecosystems everywhere. They're apparently found 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:56.440 everywhere except for Antarctica. Despite the name. Uh yeah, they're 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.640 very hearty little creatures. They're a hundred and thirty million 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.440 years old from the Cretaceous period, so they actually survived 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:08.640 the Cretaceous tertiary extinction event, and you know, they've been 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.120 around forever. They will be around forever. Some parts of 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:14.160 the world they make up about half and this is 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.240 places where there are lots and lots of insects, and 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.719 they make up in some places half of the insects. Wow. 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.080 So like, if you just took all the insects in 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.080 one ecosystem and spread them all out, half of them 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.960 would be ants. Half of them would be ants. Don't 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.400 step on them. We said it before. Don't kick over 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:35.760 those ant hills. Kids, don't torch them with with lighters 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:40.120 and hairspray cans. You need to leave those ant hills alone, right. 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:43.560 One other surprising thing about their evolutionary history that I 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:47.279 was not hipp too until recently is that ants are 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:51.360 um closely related to wasps. In fact, they think that 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:55.360 they are evolved from wasps. Uh. And their closest one 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:59.159 of their closest relatives is the mud Dauber wasp. Yeah. 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:00.720 I mean, if you look at the wasp, but it 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:04.360 sort of looks like a intimidating flying ant. And ants 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:07.480 have stingers. A lot of them have venom, so I mean, 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:10.839 it's not like you just couldn't possibly, you know, accept 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.520 that fact. That's right. Uh. And that is a bit 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.280 of a misnomer because I still say bitten by an aunt, 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:20.280 I got an ant bite, But that's not what's going on. 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.960 You're actually getting stung. Uh. The stinger on an ant 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:28.240 a is a is a modified ovipositor. And the little 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:30.120 worker ants we're gonna talk all about this later, but 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:33.960 worker ants are sterile females. They can't produce eggs, so 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:38.440 they're ovipositors or stingers, and the male ants don't have 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:41.120 stingers and as you'll see, like if you're at all 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.440 familiar with our b episode or a WASPS episode, like, 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:46.640 a lot of this stuff is gonna seem really familiar 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:49.760 again because their ants are kind of pretty closely related 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.400 to those things. They're in the same um, the same 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:56.279 order hyman up tera as we'll see. But they do 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:58.800 all sorts of amazing things that we're gonna get into 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:02.280 all of this. But are uh. They turn the soil, 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:07.360 they move um uh materials and energy up and down underground. 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:10.320 They turn over more soil than the earthworm. Um. They're 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:14.839 extremely important little animals running around on Earth. So the 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:17.000 next time you see an aunt, especially after you hear 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:20.640 these two episodes, hopefully you'll salute them or at least 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:22.880 step over them or do something to to show a 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:27.480 little bit of respect. How many ants are there, so, 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:32.039 I've seen the one that can Ruse. Dave Ruse helped 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:34.320 us out with this one. The number he came up with, 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:38.159 I've seen pretty much almost everywhere, which is something on 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:41.719 the order of ten to the fifteen power adult ants 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:46.400 on Earth right now, So about a quadrillion, which is 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:49.120 it's not just a number of four year old says, no, 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.640 it's a thousand trillion to be precise, which is that 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:55.000 sounds more like a number than a four year old says, right, 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:57.720 if you, if you, I mean, if you think about it, Um, 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:00.400 how many humans are we do we have on right now? 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:04.520 Something like seven eight billion? I believe sure this is 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:08.640 a thousand trillion ants. And there's a lot of debate also, 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:13.000 chuck about which one weighs more calculating the bio mat 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:15.480 It's all over the place. One of the one of 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.800 the figures I've seen bandied about is that ants, if you, 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:22.559 if you wait everything, every living thing on Earth, ants 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:26.320 would make up somewhere between fifteen to of that weight, 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:29.000 which is a lot. But a lot of people say, well, 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:32.880 that's that just completely dwarfs how the biomass of humans. 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:35.560 And that's not necessarily true, so it's kind of up 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:37.760 in the air. Yeah, let's put it this way. If 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.640 all of the ants got together and they decided they 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:44.480 wanted to go to war with humanity, it would be 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:46.760 a pretty intimidating fight. I'm not sure who would win, 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:52.400 but humans would probably lay wasted themselves to to lay 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:54.560 wasted the ants, you know what I mean? Well, yeah, 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:58.040 and also I mean some ants especially those red fire ants. 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.760 They eat flesh like its are not all just herbivores, 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:05.000 they're they're generally omnivores, which means that they'll eat eat 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.680 flesh as well, which means they'll eat human flesh if 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:11.440 you'll stand still long enough and let them devour you. 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:13.760 You know what's that fire ant? They can strip a 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:20.000 frog in twelve hours to the bone to the bone. Yeah, 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:24.200 it's pretty amazing. So the thing we have going for us, 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:26.280 our legs are much longer than an ant's leg so 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:28.520 we can outrun them very quickly and just get away 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:30.480 from an ant, and then by the time we're out 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:35.160 of it's it's per view, it forgot we ever existed, probably, right, 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:39.960 unless there's another colony of three million ants waiting for you. Yeah, 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:42.520 the other side, depending on what part of Europe you're 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:45.800 in there very well, maybe too, as we'll see. Right, 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:47.439 So we're gonna you know, this is gonna follow the 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:51.439 order of kind of our usual animally insect the episodes, 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:53.440 except I think this one's going to have even more 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:58.320 just sort of random amazing facts and started along the way, right, Yeah, 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.720 I don't think we'll be able to help it, alright, 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:03.960 So I guess let's talk. I mean, let's go ahead 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:06.360 and start off with some of these amazing ant things. 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:12.440 If you study ants, you're a a mermacologist. And it 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:14.360 feels like we've said that recently, but I think I 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:17.080 might be thinking of something else. Dude, thinking of Eugene Mermon, 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:22.240 That's what I'm thinking. Oh man, I love that guy. Yeah, 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:25.120 he's a very lovable guy. What a good dude. I'm 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:29.480 so glad of his Bob's Burger's success. It couldn't happen 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.680 to do a nicer guy. But he's not an ant specialist. Uh, 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.960 let's maybe let's just start off with these aunt rafts. Yeah. Well, 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:39.120 that's one of the amazing things that people have figured 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.160 out about ants is if you drop especially um red 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:44.800 imported fire ants. They're just called fire ants in their 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:48.880 native South America, but here in North America there they 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.480 really are honestly called red imported fire ants, and they 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:55.360 if you drop them into water as like a ball, 0:09:55.840 --> 0:10:00.920 they'll spread out and they will flatten themselves into a 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:05.320 raft that is actually a pretty great, well made raft. 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.600 And they do this, um just kind of without even 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:12.160 thinking about it. Yeah. So, I mean, these things can 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:13.960 be large they can be about as big as a 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:18.040 dinner plate. We're talking hundreds of thousands of ants. And 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:21.040 what they've learned. There was this researcher in particular at 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:23.679 Georgia Tech that you dug up, I mean not literally 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:25.319 dug up. He well, yeah, he was dead when I 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:30.720 meant reanimated him. Uh and said Mr David, who what 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.560 do you have to say? Uh? So he I think 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:37.200 he's from Georgia Tech. And he focused on these rafts 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:40.400 because it's such an amazing thing. And what they learned, 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:42.920 or one of the things he learned, was that when 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:47.120 these ants are building out this raft, they're like basically 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:49.920 walking over the other ants until they get to the 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:52.840 edge and then they're like, oh, well, I guess you know, 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:54.560 they communicate to each other, and we'll get to how 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:57.560 they communicate later, but they communicate to each other only 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.199 when they get to that edge. Hey, you gotta get 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.520 down here with us and make this thing larger. Yeah. Yeah, 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:08.720 they and they basically weave themselves into an interlocking pattern 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.559 to where they lay down perpendicular to the the ant 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:14.760 that is the part of the edge of the raft. 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:16.560 Then and then they become the part of the raft. 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:20.720 Sticking out right, yeah, exactly, and they connect themselves to 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:25.120 their fellow ants with multi multiple places with their interlocking arms. 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:28.640 They also push away at the same time, which allows 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.079 a lot of air in there, and these rafts can 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:35.319 float because there's something like air. But the the weave 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:39.080 is also so tight that the raft is waterproof, so 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.640 that even the ants on the bottom of the raft chuck, 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:45.200 will survive when they eventually hit dry land. Again. Yeah, 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.200 I think they kind of likened it to gortex basically. Yeah, 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:52.920 so that is that is one thing that one species 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:55.640 of ants can do, and they do this. Here's the thing, 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.360 Like you might say, well, that's really neat, that's amazing. 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:01.840 Ants don't have brains that can hold plans in their 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:04.360 heads like you and I do. Like, they can't read 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:07.480 a schematic. There's no schematics there for them. And in fact, 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:11.000 ants don't even technically have a leader. They just all 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:15.640 do these jobs and perform this work somehow we humans 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.199 have still yet to figure it out. But as each 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.959 little ant performs its own job, and you've got hundreds 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.040 of thousands of millions of ants all doing this job 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:28.040 following the same system, these really amazing larger and more 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.400 complex patterns emerge, and that's how you get things like 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:33.959 ant colonies and aunt rafts. And they do it again 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:35.920 without a leader and without a brain that could hold 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.760 a plan in their head. Yeah, I mean it's it's 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.400 a hundred and thirty million years of hard coding basically. 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.360 Like it makes me wonder if a hundred and thirty 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:48.400 million years ago, the ants we're like lucky to survive 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:51.960 that tertiary extinction, and we're like, we gotta get our 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.040 act together, guys. Yeah, we need to figure out how 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:56.719 to make rafts quick. We can't make rafts. We can't 0:12:56.760 --> 0:13:00.079 do anything. Um Ants individually can swim some speech he 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:03.120 s can uh, they basically I mean they can float 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:06.079 and they basically do like a little ant paddle. They 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:07.720 like him to do a dog paddle. I don't think 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:10.360 they can swim like great distances. But if an ant, 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.560 if some species of ant happened to accidentally fall into water, 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:16.960 it's not necessarily the end of them. They're not a goner. 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:21.319 They don't need to be reanimated yet they don't. Should 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.199 we take a break already? Yeah? I think we can. 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:25.640 I mean it's a two part or we can do 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:29.120 whatever we want. All right, we'll take a break and 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:56.000 we'll talk about not rafts, but bridges right after this. Okay, Chuck, 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:59.080 you teased bridges. What about bridges? What do what do 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:02.520 bridges have to do with ants? Well, I mean, first 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:04.160 of all, all this stuff you should you should look 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:07.800 up images and videos of when you can, because talking 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:09.320 about it is one thing. But when you really see 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.319 this stuff happening, when you see an ant raft or 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:16.520 an ant bridge, it's pretty remarkable. Um. But army ants. 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:18.199 There in a species of ant that we're going to 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:22.280 talk more about as well later. But they are nomadic. Um. 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:24.200 Usually ants kind of route down in one place, but 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:27.360 these ants like to travel. And when they're traveling through 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:31.040 the forest, if they come across uh, if they're like 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:34.120 walking up a leaf and then they want to get 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:37.040 across to another leaf, they will form a little almost 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.000 at human bridge, they form a little ant bridge all 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:43.560 the way across and can support you know, it's just 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.400 tens of centimeters, which doesn't sound like much, but when 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:49.440 you're an aunt, it's it's remarkable. Yeah, So there's something 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:52.360 going on here. You you'll start to notice like there's 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.520 something about an ant when it says Okay, I'm coming. 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:57.560 I'm in water, and I'm on a ball of other 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:00.000 ants in water. Now that I've reached the edge of water, 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.240 or I need to interlock with my partner. Same thing 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:04.080 when they reach it an end in the road, a 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:07.120 gap between the road or the bridge or whatever they're 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:09.800 walking on, they have some sort of encoded instinct to 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:13.120 lay down and interlock with whoever's part of the bridge 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:15.640 behind them to form their own part of their bridge. 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:17.880 And then even more astounding than that kind of behavior 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.840 is the fact that they can support the weight of 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:24.560 the ants crawling over them, using them as a bridge, 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:27.520 and then once the traffic dies down, they climb back 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:31.000 up like in the opposite direction, they disassemble the bridge 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.840 on the other way and then go along their merry 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:38.200 way on the forest floor. Yeah, that's when they say 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:42.280 socialism doesn't work. Um, but I was wondering how they 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:47.160 So I saw an aunt bridge spanning between two leaves, 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:50.680 so it was off the ground. Uh, how does it? 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:53.080 And the only thing I could figure like, how does it? 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:54.920 How did the how do they all get across to 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:58.080 the other side at the end of this whole thing? 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:00.600 I don't I don't know. I don't because you think 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:02.360 it'd be like one of those rope bridges where you 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:05.400 cut one in and it goes right. Well, I think 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.200 that might be what happens. But I mean, this is 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:10.240 just a guess, but I have a feeling at the 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:13.160 end of that bridge they all just go really fast 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:17.000 as after it disattaches to get to And if they're 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.040 strong enough to hold each other across the span, then 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:22.640 I guess they're strong enough to hold that last you know, 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.880 a few centimeters as it dangles. Right. Yeah, they seem 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:32.280 to make like preternaturally intelligent use of things like physics 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:36.160 and enforces and loads and all sorts of stuff, um 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:38.760 and And to be honest, like, I don't feel like 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:41.080 a jackass for not knowing the answer to what you're saying, 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:45.240 because we do not understand ants very well. It's more 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:48.440 like we're we humans are in the the g whiz 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:52.200 phase of studying ants, like we can't we can see 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:54.480 what they're doing, but we can't really explain how they're 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:56.680 doing it in a lot of cases, which makes them 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:00.800 even more fascinating to me. But but Chuck, I suspect 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:05.240 and once we fully understand ants, it will revolutionize our 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:07.280 own behavior and the way that we see the world, 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:09.240 in the way that we act ourselves, because we're gonna 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:12.320 learn a lot from them. Oh yeah, but the problem 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.439 is humans don't won't work together like that, because ants 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:19.320 are a selfless society that works in concert to accomplish 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:21.760 a greater goal. Maybe we'll figure out how to use 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:25.920 them to like more efficiently deliver packages from e commerce 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:29.800 for us. Right, that's not flying them and dropping them 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:34.080 from a drone, even more efficient than that. All right, 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:36.080 So that's that's just a bit of a tease of 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:38.840 some of the amazing things some species of ants can do. 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:40.879 I think we need to get down to kind of 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.800 the basics, uh, like we do with all of our 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.200 insect friends and animal friends, and just talk about the 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:51.400 makeup of these little guys. Yeah, so their insects, like 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:55.040 like I said earlier, there from the order him up terra. 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.679 So there's bees, wasps, ants, they're all pretty much in 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:03.359 the same little group right there. But there's at least 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:08.720 ten thousand species of ants. Apparently, some botanists, not botanists 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.640 who don't know what they're talking about, we'll say fourteen thousand, 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:14.359 and then some anomalogists will say Yeah, the botanist was right. 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:16.920 Fourteen thousand is how many species of ants there are. 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:19.800 Botanists are like, why they keep cutting my leaves? Yeah, 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:22.560 can you please ask your aunts to stop doing that? 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:26.399 That's what the botanists say. Uh. If we're talking, and again, 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:28.760 you know, since we're not starting our own side podcast 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:31.879 all about ants, we're gonna talk about a few different species. 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:35.760 Aunt rant, by the way, aunt Rant not in rhnd 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:41.359 aunt Rant featuring the works of vine Rand instead of 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:45.919 listener male, who is the opposite of ants actually, But 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:48.320 we're gonna talk about the main ones you might find 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:52.280 here in North America. One of course, is the odorous 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:54.919 house aunt a k a. The sugar ant or the 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:59.679 coconut ant. These are you know, I love ants, but 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:07.120 these the problem uh ants in my life occasionally. Yeah, 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:09.240 these are the little black ants that you know, if 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:12.600 you have something out on your counter, can come into 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:15.200 your house and a nice little single file line and 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:17.840 we'll talk about those lines later, and they will eat 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:20.239 whatever you have sitting out on the counter, if it's 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:24.800 a little crumb of a twinkie, which makes me really 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:26.119 want to eat a twinkie. I haven't done that in 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:28.959 year's probably since our Twinky episodes, but it will. They 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:31.480 will send a lot of ants after it. Uh. And 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:35.399 they they're called odorous because apparently I've never really noticed 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:37.679 a smell. But if you kill them, they smell like 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.520 a rotten coconut or like a blue cheesy odor. Yeah, 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.199 and I'm like, rotten coconut doesn't help at all, Like 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.480 I don't understand when the rotten coconut smells like blue cheese. 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:49.639 I understand more that I get that's not a good smell. 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:52.760 But I have never ever smelled an ant that smelled 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:56.240 like blue cheese or even rotten coconut. I haven't either, 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:58.679 and I try not to kill any ants, but uh, 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:03.200 invading uh, sugar ants can be a problem. Yes, sugar ants, 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:05.120 That's what I've always heard them called too, So that's 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:07.200 the odorous house aunt is the same thing as a 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:10.959 sugar ant. Yeah right, okay, because we don't We're not 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:13.840 like very bourgeois. We keep our sugar just on a 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:16.080 mound on the kitchen counter. And we have a big 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:21.280 problem with those ants too. Yeah. What about your next favorite, 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:26.080 the pavement aunt? Uh? Yeah, the malcolmus Uh, the stand 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:31.920 of viches? Right? If only um, they are the ones 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:36.320 that you find like on the sidewalk, mainly maybe under rocks. 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:38.800 And I don't think there are a whole lot different 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:43.240 than the odorous house aunt are they I honestly don't know. 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:45.520 I think maybe they don't come in your house. They're 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:48.360 more like they just hang out outside on the sidewalk. 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:55.040 You know, Yes, I like that, Babs. Yeah, I think 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:57.800 I think what the describes is like where, Yeah, where 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:00.359 you'll find them like understones and sidewalks and all. Because 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:02.480 a lot of ants, like more than just the payment ant, 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:05.080 make their nest under concrete. I'm not sure why, maybe 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:07.920 just for protection or whatever from the elements, but there 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:11.160 are plenty of ants that that seem to appreciate concrete 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:16.760 slabs and for nesting. You got your carpenter ant, which 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:20.480 are those big daddies. Uh, they will bore into wood. 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:23.879 I don't know if there is a bigger problem as termites. 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:27.160 I haven't really found them to be in mind own life. 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:30.080 But yeah, no, those are the ones I grew up with. 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:36.000 They're like there's yes, they're enormous ants, but they're almost 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.080 like friendly, like they do not they don't sting you. 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:40.760 I think they might be a sting or list. They're 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:43.680 they're certainly not venomous. They'll like crawl on your finger 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:46.520 and just kind of explore and you almost can make 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:50.119 friends with them. Weirdly, but they're they're the friendliest ants 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:52.800 I've ever encountered. Yeah, I'll do that. If I see 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:55.080 a carpenter ant, I'll put my finger down and see 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:56.720 if it wants to come up and say. You know, 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:59.360 I've never seen one down here. I've only I've only 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:00.879 seen them in no I Oh, I didn't even know 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:05.320 they were down here. Oh oh yeah, we got carpenter ants. 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:07.359 So once I did know we're down here, I found 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:10.320 out the hard way. Um, right after we moved down here, 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:13.000 I realized that I was standing in a pile of 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:17.240