I killed two ants today...

[CoffeeCat]

...because I'm sick of ants crawling on our dining room table.

It was a busy day today and I forgot to throw away their little corpses. I simply pounded them and
then had to rush out the door. Brutal, I realize.

Well, I'm sitting here at the computer and I look over--and both dead ants are each being carried off by an ant.

What is going on? Are these ants engaging in a sort of "no ant gets left behind" mission?

Anyone know?

[MorningGlow]

1. It is what they do

They retrieve their dead.

In the spring, we usually find a few ants at a time in the kitchen on scouting missions. I usually stomp one or two and leave their bodies where they fell as a warning to the other ants. They have been carried off by their brethren.

On edit: speling

[TCJ70]

2. Carried off by their bretheren...

...to be buried in the ancient ant antechamber, a tradition that ages back to the great ants of the rising sun!

Ummm, I think I just got carried away. I blame your wording...

[MorningGlow]

3. Then my wording works!

Exactly my implication. ;)

[CoffeeCat]

4. Seriously? They retrieve them and have ant funerals??

They acknowledge the loss of their comrades and bring them back to the troops?

Wow, good job using their corpses as a warning signal.

When I kill them, I feel like that monster in "Cloverfield".

I feel bad, but I can't have a house full of ants.

[MorningGlow]

6. Oh man! If only!

That would be SO COOL. (Yes, I have a 5-year-old boy. How did you know? :P )

Here are the Yahoo! answers about it: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070609034642AAPzS2j

On edit: This site says ants aren't cannibals, and they have an ant cemetery in the anthill: http://www.enaturalist.org/question/3809

(You know, this IS cool. Thanks for the OP!)

[Deep13]

7. No.

Seriously, the computer you are typing on has more self awareness than ants. They are very much like robots who respond to their environment according to programming. Natural selection has caused that to happen. Intelligence and especially self awareness are very expensive for nature to produce and they will not happen without a clear survival advantage.

[Deep13]

5. It's protein.

Retreiving the dead ants provides the nest with protein and deprives predators of it.

[latebloomer]

8. My daughter's been hammering them to death today with a large wooden spoon.

Big black ones. I think we have a problem. :scared:

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. I killed a spider last night. Guess I shoulda just sent it to you.