Ants Use Scents Like Road Signs

Ant writes "Animal Planet mentions ants scouting for food place a tiny scent marker on branches that do not lead to a reward. This was according to a study published on Thursday in Nature, the weekly British science weekly. The pheromone acts like a "no entry signal" to other ants, telling them not to waste their time going down that route, it says. The discovery was made by animal scientists at Britain's University of Sheffield. Seen in The Ant Farm's and Myrmecology's Message Board forum thread."

Comments

Feynmans Ants

[Midnight Warrior]

Why is this new? Richard Feynman talked about ants long time ago. Even as far back as when he was a kid, as he discusses in his book Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman (which has the text of the book, and this section, about 1/3 of the way down). First non-lamer post.

Re:Feynmans Ants

[Vellmont]

Because they've discovered that ants not only leave "follow me" trails, but also "don't follow me" trails. Feynman only found evidence for the "follow me" trails, which I'd guess had been known about for a while.

Re:Anyone remember SimAnt?

[Vo0k]

Well, there WAS a "warning" pheromone. You were supposed to spray it around dangerous places. It just meant "stay away". Since the game wasn't on branches but on ground, the "no entry" pheromone made less sense.
Anyway, get the first colony somewhat running, just mark the first food supply, then change the profile of egg production so that all 3 classes are produced in equal amounts, not the default queens being just a small percent, then go to the macromanagement map and start spreading the queens all over the lawn. Some will die, some will survive and produce more queens. Really soon you will own the game.