@futurebird The CPS board is underestimating ants!
-
@futurebird The CPS board is underestimating ants! https://bsky.app/profile/cpsc.gov/post/3lmuushdpzc27
-
F myrmepropagandist shared this topic
-
@futurebird The CPS board is underestimating ants! https://bsky.app/profile/cpsc.gov/post/3lmuushdpzc27
Look at all the cool technology those ants have gotten their mandibles on. I don't think "product safety" is going to be our biggest problem going forward ... Please consider the implications of ants on electric scooters with power drills.
UNSAFE power drills!
-
Look at all the cool technology those ants have gotten their mandibles on. I don't think "product safety" is going to be our biggest problem going forward ... Please consider the implications of ants on electric scooters with power drills.
UNSAFE power drills!
@futurebird @CrazyMooseThing this really makes me wonder if you could create tiny tools that ants would use, like parrots have learned to use voice commands for electronics.
-
@futurebird @CrazyMooseThing this really makes me wonder if you could create tiny tools that ants would use, like parrots have learned to use voice commands for electronics.
When I'm old and gray you'll find me making tiny computers and leaving them for the ants to use.
A keyboard and screen for ants is a real design challenge?
(or more seriously just something like they have for chimps with simple buttons to let them select drink options and see if they can pick the right button... then if you do you'd need to wonder why and how.)
-
When I'm old and gray you'll find me making tiny computers and leaving them for the ants to use.
A keyboard and screen for ants is a real design challenge?
(or more seriously just something like they have for chimps with simple buttons to let them select drink options and see if they can pick the right button... then if you do you'd need to wonder why and how.)
OK this started silly, but there is the observation that ant colonies remember the locations of large aphid colonies year to year. They will stake out the locations before the aphids increase in number.
It could be that they can recognize the parts of plants that aphids like, they could mark the locations somehow.
But ants do have a sense of the local "map" of the area around their colony. They can remember locations. Huge to show they save memories over winter.
-
OK this started silly, but there is the observation that ant colonies remember the locations of large aphid colonies year to year. They will stake out the locations before the aphids increase in number.
It could be that they can recognize the parts of plants that aphids like, they could mark the locations somehow.
But ants do have a sense of the local "map" of the area around their colony. They can remember locations. Huge to show they save memories over winter.
I think one could test this with a fake plant that would be stocked with aphids in abundance. Then, over winter you replace the fake plant with a new identical but clean one and see if the ants are interested in it just because of where it is.
-
I think one could test this with a fake plant that would be stocked with aphids in abundance. Then, over winter you replace the fake plant with a new identical but clean one and see if the ants are interested in it just because of where it is.
@futurebird @alexhaist @CrazyMooseThing are bees able to do this? I guess bees have individual colony members surviving winter, so it would not be too hard to believe, I'm not sure how ants survive winter, if they have longer lived colony members that reduce their metabolic rate or if they have normal colony reproduction that just uses saved resources.
-
@futurebird @alexhaist @CrazyMooseThing are bees able to do this? I guess bees have individual colony members surviving winter, so it would not be too hard to believe, I'm not sure how ants survive winter, if they have longer lived colony members that reduce their metabolic rate or if they have normal colony reproduction that just uses saved resources.
@sophieschmieg @alexhaist @CrazyMooseThing
About half of the colony can remember the previous summer. There are lots of ants around from last year generally. Workers live about a year, but up to three years.
