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Ants Use Scents Like Road Signs

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-use-a-similar-method-to-gaurd-my-office dept.

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."

3 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds good by CXI · · Score: 2, Insightful

    When can I get it in a spray can?

  2. Better than RAID poison? by PurifyYourMind · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The RAID traps I used this last summer didn't work well. I wonder when someone will formulate a sprayable "do not enter" chemical as an alternative to poisons. Then how long will it take for ants to evolve an adaptation to ignore false "do not enter" signs?

  3. Re:Something to see by panthro · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...since there cannot be much to an ant. Certainly not much sophisticated processing ability.

    Why do people automatically assume that ants, and for that matter, other non-human animals, are simple and/or dumb and/or not self-aware? It seems this idea that humans are so tremendously much more complex than any other organism sprouts from thin air (or thick ego), and it would take a dolphin obtaining a Ph.D. in particle physics to convince them otherwise.

    At least, it suggests that ant behavior is not as simple as I had thought.

    Probably not. Our behaviour is as complex as it is mainly due to the degree of social interaction inherent to our species. Now, show me an ant, and I will show you a social creature if there ever was any.

    --
    If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.