I know, this one is a little different but… ants like a treat after a hard day’s work. Researchers found that ants like an indulgence after working hard yet they will use restraint until the job is complete. Depending on the intensity of the tasks they performed, they allow themselves different quality rewards or treats that contained a higher or lower degree of satisfying flavours. For example, ants were given two tasks, a simple effortless one and a difficult one; the rewards for doing each task where different; with the higher valued treat for the harder task. After the ants had an opportunity to try both paths with different rewards, they repeatedly would do the harder task just to receive the higher valued reward. Just like for us, hard-earned rewards simply feel better. Similar to us humans, ants tend to prefer to eat food at the end of an ascending path rather than a descending one – therefore they value a hard-earned meal.
http://gogreenpestcontrol.ca/an-eye-on-the-prize-ants-of-course/
gogreenpestcontrol.ca Ladner Tsawwassen Delta B.C. Randy Bilesky gogreenenvironmental.ca