th15IH

While ant nests differ greatly, when you crack one open, you’ll
most likely find lots of workers (the ants we most often see in the
“real world”), a queen (many species have several queens), and a
white pile of eggs and babies.
Photo Gallery - Ant architecture
Most ants carry out the trash and their dead, piling it in their own
ant graveyards/dumps, called midden piles. Like any good
detective, you can learn many things from going through an ant’s
trash. If you find a midden pile, you can get a good idea of what
the ants have been eating and whether or not the ants are sick or
at war with other ants. You’ll probably discover bits of seeds and
insect head capsules stuffed in with dead ants. When tremendous
numbers of dead ants litter the piles, it’s likely the colony is sick
or warring with other ants.
Back inside the nest, the ants busy themselves with their daily
anty lives. You can take some cookie crumbs and call them out to
you. See how they sniff the earth with their antennae, each one a
living being experiencing the world, doing its special job. Watch
them communicate, following one another under blades of grass
and around pebbles, stopping every now and again to touch one
another’s faces, clean their legs, investigate their surroundings.
Ants saturate our environment, from our homes to the sidewalks,
city streets, and forests spread all around us. They are our
neighbors, our friendly fellow citizens working away as we work.
It’s time we introduce ourselves.
Most folks recognize these sandy desert mounds as a typical ant nest.
But ants build their homes in an amazing variety of structures and
places. - © Alex Wild
21