Clean as an Ant
For ants cleanliness is a matter of survival. Dirty antennas don’t pick up scents, and that’s how ants, navigate and communicate. The cleaning mechanism that is found at a joint in each front leg of the carpenter ant was a precise and efficient process geared to pick up particles of different sizes. When the ant bends its leg, it forms a kind of clamp that the ant pulls the antenna through, scraping off dirt and pollen. The clamp in the antenna first encounters coarse bristles that knock off the biggest particles, then a fine comb and finally a brush. The gaps in the comb are exactly as wide as hairs on the antenna, so only the hairs fit through. The brush is even finer, and it somehow attracts the smallest particles to stick to it. Once the antenna is clean, the ant has to clean the cleaning mechanism, which it does with its mouth. The process is so finely calibrated in terms of pressure and size of the combs and brushes that it cleans the delicate antennas thoroughly without damaging them.
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