Welcome to Fast Facts with Reasons for Hope! I’m Carl Kerby and, today, we’re going to continue talking about farmer ants.
These ants protect the tiny insects that they’re farming so they must care for their herd, right? Nope!
The ants clip the wings of the aphids off so they can’t fly away. They also use chemicals they produce to drug the aphids. This drug keeps the aphids from growing wings which traps them and makes them prisoners.
The fact is, ants don’t like anybody and, even though we may not like ants, their primary predator isn’t humans – it’s other ants!
Usually, when one ant colony finds another ant colony, it’s on! They’ll attack each other and the fights are often to the death.
The losers not only die, but their eggs are taken to the victor’s nest and eaten as food.
By the way, do you know how many ants are in the world? Well, we’ll talk about that in the next Fast Facts with Reasons for Hope. Until then, stay bold!
Karl Kerby is the founder of Reasons for Hope and co-creator of the DeBunked apologetic video series. His radio feature, Fast Facts, is heard weekly on VCY America, Saturdays at 9:25 AM Central.
