Uncle Milton Ant Farm Gel Colony - Manual (Page 5)

Ants Are Industrious
Each ant in a colony has its own special job, and every job is important. Deep below
the surface of a natural nest, nurse ants take care of the queen, eggs and larvae,
nest-builders dig tunnels and chambers, and nest-keepers keep the nest clean. On
the surface, guard ants patrol for predators and foragers gather food.
In some species, the younger ants work underground and the older ones work on
the surface. In other species, different sized ants do different jobs: smaller ants work
inside the nest, caring for the queen, eggs and larvae, middle-sized ants do
nest-building and most of the foraging for food, and the largest ants are guards
protecting the colony from predators and invading ants.
If extra workers are needed for a really big job, ants might switch from one task to
another. For instance, if foragers find a good food source, some of the builders
underground will stop digging and come up to help. If there is a particularly
difficult underground tunneling project to complete, some of the outside foragers
will come down to assist.
Ants Are Strong
Ants are incredibly strong for their size. An ant is able to pick up objects up to fifty
times its own weight and carry it in its mandibles for long distances. That would be
like an average-sized human carrying a five-ton boulder across the neighborhood
by his teeth! For extra-heavy loads, ants work in teams.
Ants are also very speedy creatures. If you could run as fast as an ant can for its size,
you would be able to sprint twice as fast as the world’s fastest human!
Ants Are Good for the Environment
Ants perform many important functions in the world’s ecosystems. They are
exceptional earth movers. Ants enrich, irrigate and aerate more soil than
any other animal in the world, including earthworms. Ants are major recyclers of
organic waste. Also, ants are a major food source for many animals like birds,
reptiles and amphibians.
Amazing Ant Facts
Ants have been around since dinosaurs lived!
There are currently about 12,000 known species of ants!
There may be 10,000 more species yet to be discovered!
There are as many as ten million billion ants in the world right at this moment!
There are more than one and a half million ants to every human on Earth!
Ants account for 10 percent of the weight of all the land-dwelling animals combined!
Ants can be found on every continent... except Antarctica!