111–115 of 115 posts
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Workers live from 1 to 3 years. A queen ant can live for up to 30 years! I guess less down in that environment though.
That's incredible. I always thought it would be on the order of weeks for a worker, and maybe a few years for a queen. I feel extra bad for killing these little guys as a kid.
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Well the queen isn't really the top of the hierarchy as she would be in a human colony. She's simply one who has a particular job (reproduction) and thus greater needs. Not really any different from any of the other ants.
The queen has seized the means of reproduction.
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I would guess the problem is they don't even know they need to climb it to begin with. I don't think ants have enough consciousness to realize "this is the way I fell down, so this is where I have to go to get back", and the pipe wouldn't have any pheromone trails or anything to signal them. It's a long way to climb when you don't specifically realize that's what you need to do.
My guess is that some do climb out, randomly, but not enough to be statistically significant. Hell is not knowing that you're in hell and should get out.
I don't understand why they can't climb out? You would think after a few days one ant would find the ceiling and climb back up the shaft?
Yes, it happens, but that one ant then is apparently too selfish to go back again for the others.