An event that took place in the USA on Christmas 2021 has once again gone viral on social media. The leading role in this event is ants carrying their dead onto Trix brand cereal.
This strange event was shared by user OctopusCaveman, whose son owns an ant farm. “My son put some Trix on the ant farm,” he tweeted. Instead of eating them, the ants pulled out all the dead ants from the farm and piled them on Trix,” he said. “I’m not sure what that means, but I’m not going to eat Trix anymore.”
My son put some Trix in his ant farm. Instead of eating them, the ants dug up all of the dead ants in the farm and piled them on top of the Trix. Not sure what that means but I’m not eating Trix anymore.
— Octopus/Caveman (@OctopusCaveman) December 29, 2021
Understandably, it may come as a surprise that ants would dig up their dead and pile them on Trix, as they usually eat sugary stuff.
Trix and Spinach graveyard pic.twitter.com/UousFzeJdE
— Octopus/Caveman (@OctopusCaveman) December 30, 2021
There are several different theories regarding the interesting “funeral practices” where ants carry their dead to a pile. The first of these is necrophoresis. Necrophesis can be defined as a hygiene behavior seen in social insects such as ants, bees, hornets and termites, which are known to carry the dead bodies of colony members away from the nest or hive.
Social insects living in complex colonies use a variety of pheromones to convey messages. This could be to mark a walkway, to warn other ants of danger, or even to let them know they are dead and possibly everyone else should be on the lookout for deadly dangers.
So you might expect ants to be sensitive to chemical signals from other animals, plant materials, and sugary grains. It’s an observed behavior where ants place scented material around dead insects, either to protect a meal or to hide their place. So the pungent cereal may offer a good opportunity to cover up their stinking dead.
Alternatively, the grain itself may smell of death in the form of oleic acid. Dead ants emit oleic acid, and as an adaptation to reduce the spread of pathogens, necrophoresis causes the ants to collect their dead and take them to a special grave. Some colonies even have “special undertaker ants” for this job…
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