Ant Wars -Royal Guards become Frontline Fodder

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Ants attack and defend themselves by biting, stinging and injecting or spraying chemicals, such as acid, alkaloids and piperidines.  When some species of ant go to war, the oldest soldiers fight on the front lines, these frontline soldiers (females first) are really just cannon fodder as they are closer to death (just too old) anyway. The older soldiers (all sterile) ants actually blocked the nest opening with their huge jaws against approaching invading ants and get picked away one by one. As the ants age their tasks as soldiers switch to more dangerous ones as the younger soldiers take less defensive positions within the nest becoming the royal guards, protecting the queen. The younger soldiers are inclined to choose inner nest defence, a much less risky positioning than defending the nest entrance. It was found that the older soldiers were not actually more or less effective at nest defence, so their age rather than their military experience promoted to the front. In nature, the young survive allowing them to promote their lifetime involvement to the nests success.

gogreenpestcontrol.ca ladner Tsawwassen Delta B.C. Randy Bilesky

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ant-wars-royal-guards-become-frontline-fodder-randy-bilesky/?published=t

http://www.delta-optimist.com/opinion/blogs/blog-ant-wars-royal-guards-become-front-line-fodder-1.23197370