10 Fascinating Facts About Ants

1. Ants are capable of carrying objects 50 times their own body weight with their mandibles.

2. Soldier ants use their heads to plug the entrances to their nests and keep intruders from gaining access.

3. Certain ant species defend plants in exchange for food and shelter. 

4. The total biomass of all the ants on Earth is roughly equal to the total biomass of all the people on Earth.

5. Ants sometimes herd or tend to insects of other species, like aphids or leafhoppers.

6. Ants will enslave other ants, keeping them captive and making them do work for the colony.

7. Ants lived alongside the dinosaurs.

8. Ants started farming long before humans.

9. Some ants form "supercolonies," massive communities of ants that can stretch for thousands of miles.
10. Ants follow scent trails laid by scout ants to gather food.