10 Bizarre Ant Facts That Will Surprise You

At first glance ants are just small, busy insects running around everywhere. Look a little closer and you find a world full of strategy, teamwork and very strange solutions to everyday problems. Here are ten bizarre facts about ants that show how much is going on under your feet.

1. They build bridges out of their own bodies

What do you do when there is a gap in your path? Army ants simply become the bridge. Workers hook onto each other and form a living structure that the rest of the colony walks across. The bridge even adjusts itself: when traffic is busy it grows, and when fewer ants need it, workers let go and rejoin the column. Researchers study this behaviour to design swarm robots that can adapt to difficult terrain without a central controller telling each unit what to do.

2. No lungs, no problem

Ants do not have lungs. Air enters their body through small openings called spiracles and travels through a network of tiny tubes, the tracheae, straight to the tissues that need oxygen. For an animal of their size this system works very well, and it is one of the reasons ants can live in tight, enclosed tunnels deep underground.

3. Small but extremely strong

Ants are famous for their strength, and it is well deserved. Many species can carry loads many times their own body weight. The secret is scale: small animals have relatively more muscle cross-section for their body mass than large ones, so their strength goes a lot further. That is why you can watch a single worker drag a seed, a leaf or a piece of prey that looks far too big for her, all the way back to the nest without giving up halfway.

4. Zombie ants

It sounds like a horror film, but it happens in tropical forests every day. The fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis infects carpenter ants and takes over their behaviour. The infected ant leaves the colony, climbs a plant and bites into the underside of a leaf. There it dies, and the fungus grows a stalk out of its body that rains spores on the forest floor below, ready to infect the next ant that passes.

5. There are an enormous number of them

A large study in 2022 estimated that around 20 quadrillion ants live on Earth, that is a 20 followed by 15 zeros. Their combined mass is about a fifth of the mass of all humans, and more than all wild birds and mammals together. Few animal groups have been this successful in almost every habitat on the planet.

6. Some species raid other colonies for workers

The blood-red ant, Formica sanguinea, raids the nests of other Formica species and carries off their pupae. When those pupae hatch, the young workers grow up in the raiders' nest and start working for a colony that is not their own. Biologists call this slave-making or dulosis. It sounds harsh, but it is a clear example of how far evolution can push a successful strategy.

7. Fire ants survive floods on living rafts

When their nest floods, fire ants grab onto each other and form a floating raft with the queen and brood safely in the middle. The raft can stay afloat for days or even weeks until it reaches dry land. Their bodies trap tiny air bubbles that help keep the whole raft above water, and the ants at the bottom regularly swap places with those on top. It is one of the clearest examples of a colony acting as a single organism, where every individual plays a part in keeping the whole group alive.

8. Ants were farmers long before we were

Leafcutter ants cut pieces of leaves, carry them home and use them to feed a fungus garden. They do not eat the leaves themselves: they eat the fungus. This kind of farming has existed for millions of years, long before humans started growing crops. Keeping the garden healthy takes constant work, from cutting and cleaning to removing harmful molds.

9. Exploding ants

In Southeast Asia lives Colobopsis saundersi (formerly Camponotus saundersi), an ant with an extreme last line of defence. When a worker is threatened, it can rupture its own body and spray a sticky, toxic substance over the attacker. The worker dies, but the colony is protected. It is a striking example of how, in a colony, the group matters more than the individual.

10. Ants take care of their dead

Ant colonies are remarkably clean. When an ant dies, others carry the body out of the nest and drop it on a waste pile, which helps prevent disease from spreading through the colony. You can often see this in captivity too: most colonies pick a fixed corner of the outworld for their waste and dead nestmates.

Ants are full of surprises

Ants build living bridges, farm fungus, float on rafts and defend their colony in ways you will not easily see in larger animals. Next time an ant walks past, remember how much is going on in that small body. Want to see some of this behaviour up close? Read our guide on keeping ants as pets.

Which fact surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments.