There’s a question for the Consult-Ant this week. (The “Consult-Ant” started on the Leaping from the Box website, where I answered questions about ants and ant farms. From now on I will post the answers here, and when Karen has time she will also post the answers on her site.)
Question:
I sucked an ant up in a homemade bug vacuum and then transported it over a mile from its home. Will it survive if I let it go? Do they have to find their way to their original nest in order to survive?
Anon
Answer:
First of all, can a single ant make it on its own? The answer is no, unless that ant is a queen during certain parts of her life cycle. A single worker ant on its own doesn’t have much of a chance of survival.
So, could the ant navigate back to its nest if displaced? Different ants use different cues to navigate when outside the nest. Some ants can use cues from polarized light or the position of the sun. Potentially an ant that uses visual cues might be able to re-orient itself over short distances to find its nest.
On the other hand, some ants rely heavily on chemical trails to move back and forth to their colony. Think of army ants, some of which are blind. In that case, the ant would have to wander around until it accidentally ran across a trail. The likelihood this would happen decreases with distance from the nest.
At the distance of over a mile, the chances the ant will be re-united with its nestmates are non-existent. There’s a tiny chance it could join a nearby colony, but it is not likely.
What about a flying insect, like a honey bee? Honey bees would stand a much better chance. They have been shown to be able to fly up to five miles from their hive while foraging. They navigate by visual cues. An experienced forager bee might be able to re-orient from a greater distance than an ant on the ground could.
Please let us know if you have any further questions.
Anyone else have any thoughts?
Photograph of ant in a bug sucker by Karen Gibson, used with permission.