Ants – Only the healthy survive
Ants in a nest work together like cells in a body, with healthy ants acting like white blood cells killing off other ants they recognize as a threat. Researchers have shown that ants kill colony comrades infected with potential diseases. In this way, ants can guard their colony from the occurrence of an endemic. Ants can smell when members of their own nest are sick or fatally ill. If one ant becomes a danger to the whole colony, ants have designed a way to deal with it: kill their infected co-workers. If a fungus, for example, reproduces in the body of a single ant, it will become a source of infection for the entire colony. These ants literally disinfect their colony mates in a fatal way by injecting the infected ant with an acid, which kills the fungus and the ant. The colony isn’t as ruthless as it may seem, the pathogen-contaminated ant will be rigorously cleaned to get rid of the fungus’ spores but if this doesn’t work then the sickly ant is killed. Scientists have discovered that infected ants give off smells that signal its mates that they are fighting a pathogen. When ants are sick, they produce extra hydrocarbons on their exoskeleton that signals that they are sick.
gogreenpestcontrol.ca Ladner Tsawwassen Delta B.C. Randy Bilesky
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ants-only-healthy-survive-randy-bilesky/?published=t
http://www.delta-optimist.com/opinion/blogs/blog-ants-only-the-healthy-survive-1.23139541
