Why do ants store food?

Workers gather and store food for the entire colony, lugging loads much larger than themselves back to the nest. When a hungry ant touches the head or mouth of a storage worker ant, the storage worker responds by regurgitating food for the hungry ant.

What do ants do with the food?

As soon as a scout locates food such as sugar, it returns to the nest, laying down a scent trail by repeatedly pressing its abdomen to the ground. The other ants sense the secretions with the help of their smell organs and follow the scent trail towards the food discovered by the scout ant.

How do ants store food for winter?

Ants of the Messor aciculatus species carry plant seeds into their nests and store them there. During winter, they feed on the stored seeds. Ants of the other species never store food in preparation for winter. Ants of Messor aciculatus species store food during autumn.

How do ants store liquid?

The ants store the liquid in their bellies until it is needed. To get liquid out of a storage ant, a worker ant strokes the storage ant with its antennae. This makes the storage ant bring up some of the liquid into its mouth, to pass it on to the worker ant.

Do ants freeze to death?

Freezing is a slow but painless death for an ant (and other coldblooded creatures), as they will slow down before they could ever realize they are in danger, and then it is too late.

Can you eat ant honey?

“It tastes like the honey you’ve got at home, but I reckon the honey from honey ants is sweeter. There’s a couple of different tastes; it depends on the sort of flowers they’ve been eating,” says Ulrich. “It’s a delicacy.”

What happens when the queen ant dies?

A queen ant ensures the survival of the colony because she is responsible for creating its members. Depending on her species, a queen can lay hundreds up to a thousand eggs a day. If a queen were to die, there would be no one to replace her (female worker ants cannot reproduce) and the colony will eventually die out.