r/antkeeping • u/Longjumping_Job_1861 • 2d ago

Question What's happening here?

Caught a pair of ants doing this. It looks like an adult ant dragging a newborn back to the brood. It looked pretty comical which is why im posting it but what exactly is happening here? Thanks!

29 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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9

u/Prize-Strawberry8580 2d ago

Ants boss each other around sometimes, like one worker believes another worker needs to be at poont A instead of B so she picks up the other worker and takes her there herself. This also happens alot with callows that aren’t fully developed ime.

5

u/Edwin81 1d ago

"I told you that you're grounded so go back to your room!"

4

u/TalkDiligent8461 1d ago

Ants sometimes treat their callows like pupae. I have heard it has something to do with the pheromones. If she still smells like a pupae, she needs to be placed back in the brood pile where she belongs.

3

u/BetterBus350 I would like my colonies to grow... 1d ago

It's more likely that they just think that the callows need to be in that specific place because it's safter or more ideal to them and not because they are thinking the callow is still a workers.

I've seen my young carpenter ant colony always bringing their callows next to the queen after they are done eclosing.

3

u/UnderratedActor 18h ago

Normal behaviour. The dominant ant wants the other workers to clean shit and take care of the babies 🤣

1

u/No_Fudge6123 18h ago

Which camera re you using for this? 

2

u/Longjumping_Job_1861 15h ago

This is the phone camera for my Galaxy Z flip 7

1

u/No_Fudge6123 15h ago

Unbelievably sharp