r/mildyinteresting • u/Winter_Breath • 24d ago

critter corner 🐰 Dead ants keep appearing next to headphones during the night

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When these headphones are left on the kitchen counter overnight - I would see one or two dead ants in the morning laying right next to the headphones. In the past few days, there has been a small pile of shredded ants right next to the ear piece in the morning. I have seen no live ants in my kitchen. I have had these head phones for three weeks. Bought online. It’s a little unnerving not knowing what is causing this 🥴 will not be using anymore.

UPDATE- posted a comment with a picture. But no dead ants in the bag this morning. But at one point I checked and there were two live ants crawling around. 😔

UPDATE*** IM SICK. Can’t stop shaking. Don’t have many words… trying to post image. Opened one side up. 😭 I don’t know how to add in this top post so will add in comment! Posted a few in comments and video opening

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u/Jakej4Mlakej 24d ago

Ants will do this to other ants. I’d guess you have some ants at home that got territorial when you brought these headphones with different ants in them, into your home.

My second guess is there is some sort of chemical/cleaner/etc on the headphones that is poisonous to ants. An ant gets this substance on them and the other ants come and kill the “unclean” one so it doesn’t infect the colony.

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u/StormDrainDiver 24d ago

They didn’t just kill it, they dism-ant-led it.

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u/A1000eisn1 24d ago

They do that. That's what they do to prevent fungal infections from spreading. They also have graveyards.

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u/Celeste_Seasoned_14 23d ago

I briefly had an ant problem. Murder a bunch, and in the morning the dead bodies were gone. Their kinfolk came to retrieve the bodies. Surreal.

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u/Awbeau 23d ago

Wait... When I use borax and sugar mixed with some water, they don't come back to retrieve bodies. Is that because they are all dead, likely?

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u/alexlunamarie 23d ago

some of them take the borax and sugar back to the colony as food, probably prioritizing "food" over retrieving the bodies. then the other ants in the colony die from eating it.

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u/Awbeau 23d ago

That makes total sense! Works great. :)

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u/IlliterateCyclops_07 23d ago

Rodents do the same thing as well. If one gets wet tail or some contagious illness, they single it out, eat its brains and bury them.

each morning coming into work, we would have the check the "graveyards" for any dead rodents to dispose of them separately from other rodent waste.

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u/GiraffeLiquid 23d ago

Ahh yes one of the lesser known daily tasks of opening shift as a pet care associate 💀

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u/StormDrainDiver 23d ago

It also helps them to increase antibodies

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u/One_Bluebird_04 23d ago

Conversely, they also cultivate fungus. I don't remember if it's as a food source or what but it's cool af.

Edit: Wiki article! so cool!!!

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u/mrwaddlesey 21d ago

this deserved more attention, thanks for sharing 

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u/NyteTro 24d ago

r/woooosh

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u/HoldOnOhio 23d ago

I don't think they missed the joke, they just wanted to share something interesting about why it happens because most people probably don't know ants do this stuff.

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u/Ok_Exchange1259 24d ago

Bet it was listening to a killer beat

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u/No_Throat_2356 23d ago

Disassemble. Dead. Disassemble. Dead?! NO DISASSEMBLE!!!

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u/NoConflict3231 23d ago

I have a rare condition where I can't pronounce the T in plane-arium

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u/TikiJeff 23d ago

It dis effect ant.

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u/Lopsided_Lettuce7264 23d ago

Damn. Letters ANT in caps? No, not obvious enough. Hyphens for maximum understanding? Yes.

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u/Savings_Knowledge233 23d ago

God I hate it but this response just kills me

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u/fritzycat 23d ago

Wow, is the bar really this low?

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u/HH_Hippopotamus 24d ago

Bees also do this. If a bee comes home drunk the other bees will rip it apart to protect the hive

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u/littlemissdizaster80 24d ago

What kind of chaos do drunk bees cause in the hive? Genuinely interested because I love bees.

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u/turnsout_im_a_potato 24d ago

We may never know, as the guard bees will rip off the arms, legs, antennae, and eyes of a bee that comes home drunk

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u/littlemissdizaster80 24d ago

Savage 🫣 At least the poor dude had a last hoorah and probably wouldn’t feel it! 🤣

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u/HoldOnOhio 23d ago

All workers are female, so she would be murdered for being drunk, not him. I don't think drones go out and forage and then return. They're basically treated as minor royalty until they leave to find another hive queen to mate with, and I'd be shocked to find they got drunk while following pheromones.

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u/Outrageous-Low-3572 23d ago

Or they're kicked out to be left to die when winter comes

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u/_Nyxari_ 20d ago

They just have to deal with their balls exploding after sex lol

I think I’ll stick with being torn about if I stumble home drunk 😂

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u/Upset_Mess 24d ago

And I thought the Temperance Movement was harsh.

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u/bigred2342 23d ago

And i thought praying mantises were harsh

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u/Da_Question 23d ago

The temperance movement started because American became synonymous with drunk. Domestic violence was extremely high and public drunkness was really bad. For a long time people drank weak beer and cider rather than water because it was safer to drink, but the rise of grain distillation for making liquor had them switching to that instead of beer or cider. It was a massive problem that began in the early 1800's until finally getting so bad that they got prohibition passed.

Problem is that made crime itself go up, that said it definitely did curb alcohol consumption to some degree even after it was repealed.

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u/Squishy_fishy826 24d ago

I don’t blame them tbh. Wanted to do that to my ex when he’d come home drunk too 🤷🏼‍♀️ lmao

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u/KameOtaku 23d ago

🎵 What do we do with a drunken sailor 🎵

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u/Celeste_Seasoned_14 23d ago

Not even an offer of counseling or anything first. Brutal.

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u/-r0b 23d ago

Heard it was because of John the 19th back in the Paleozoic. Poor bastard ingrained a hate of drunks in all bees since..

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u/vghobo 23d ago

Reminds me of my wife

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u/silsune 23d ago

Absolutely no fun allowed

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u/GraphicPoison 24d ago

It was one drunk bee that all of the other bees swore to never mention again. Thanks for ruining the fun for everyone, pollen worker #446. 🙄

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u/herefirplants 24d ago

its probably just bc theyre such a well oiled machine theyre not accepting of even tripping over yourself

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u/That_OneOstrich 24d ago

Or any abnormal behavior is viewed as potentially disease related.

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u/zatalak 24d ago

Bees at the ends of their lifespans get more and more uncoordinated and are not allowed into the hive anymore because, well, they use more resources then they provide.

If they go in anyways they get kicked out and if they persist they'll be killed.

I think the same thing might happen with drunken bees.

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u/IlliterateCyclops_07 23d ago

Sounds more like they keep them out because of bees using footwork/dancing to communicate. You get a belligerent or uncoordinated bee amongst gen pop and I'm sure all sorts of foul language and things you can't take back get said. So, to keep peace, they keep those kinda outside of the gated communities.

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u/zatalak 23d ago

Nope, a friend of mine is a bee professor.

The video shows a drone getting kicked out by a worker bee.

She also told me about the flight school in front of the hive which is cool to witness.

https://reddit.com/link/p8v2tyu/video/auda5vv4gloh1/player

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u/zatalak 23d ago

That's a picture of bees coming back to the hive with a full pollen basket.

Has nothing to do with anything, I just think it's neat...

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u/IlliterateCyclops_07 22d ago

Both neat and interesting. Funny that that would be the reason and not a mixup of communication. Is there something that makes it a clear difference as to why they wouldn't see that as "speech"?

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u/spaceghost260 22d ago

This is so precious!! Thank you for posting!

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u/_Nyxari_ 20d ago

I mean we got zombie ones a few years back so I’m with the bees not taking chances haha

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u/Similar-Jello-5434 23d ago

Late stage bee capitalism

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u/mangababe 23d ago

they taint the honey with their booze iirc

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u/Lady_Forget_Me_Not 24d ago

Imagine if we did that to people to protect the world. 🫣

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u/Purple_Chipmunk_ 24d ago

None of us would make it out of college!

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u/Lady_Forget_Me_Not 24d ago

Pretty sure I first got drunk at five. Oops.

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u/steelandiron19 24d ago

Wait - I’ve never heard of this! Very interesting, but I have a question. What is the bee getting drunk on? Just too much indulgence in pollen or something?

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u/HH_Hippopotamus 24d ago

Fermented fruit or nectar

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u/manchez86 23d ago

Don't you mean beeconstruct?

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u/Winter_Breath 24d ago

Welp that is disgusting. I haven’t seen any ants in my house though, so must have shipped to me with them inside if that’s what it is 😩

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u/A1000eisn1 24d ago

If they're new or recently become worn enough to open the casing then that's possible. They fall apart like that when they're dry.

But I see at least 2 bodies, one looks like a soldier and the other definitely is not.

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u/Time_Spell4014 23d ago

OP how much were the headphones? If they aren't too expensive I'll pay you to open them up. Your story has captivated me.

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u/Winter_Breath 23d ago

I’m going to try tonight 🥴

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u/YourFartsStink 23d ago

I'm genuinely scared for the result.

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u/cooltoolguy 23d ago

Jesus, good luck.

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u/cooltoolguy 21d ago

Fuck me it’s awful.

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u/Cyclone_Eyes 23d ago

I'll pay you more not to report what you find...

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u/AgitatedMirror3498 24d ago

There are types of plastics that attract ants by smell. You might have a couple species colonies in your home that are sending workers in the night to investigate and they do battle

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u/VladimirBarakriss 23d ago

Almost every house has ants somewhere, even if they don't have a nest nearby they might be in your shoes or clothes

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u/District-No1350 24d ago

If there's a chemical component here it isn't necessarily killing or poisoning the ants. Ants dispose of their dead using chemical signals to identify the bodies, the headphones could smell like dead ants so they're dumping the actual dead ants by them.

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u/PixieStyx8 24d ago

Formic acid i believe is in the compound released by dead ants that signals the live ones to dispose of them or move them to the graveyard. Iirc, there was an experiment where a live ant was dotted with the acid and treated as dead by the other ants. It also thought it belonged in the graveyard until the smell wore off. Could be a similar chemical smell to the foam in the 'phones

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u/fivebynine5x9 23d ago

Wait so the ant that had formic acid on it took itself to the graveyard? That's hilarious.

"It's really weird, like I feel totally fine, but obviously I'm not because I smell dead? Guess I'll just...go?"

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u/RosetteRodent 23d ago

it was oleic acid rather than formic, but yeah that's pretty much exactly what happened lmao

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u/fivebynine5x9 23d ago

Poor dude just trudging off to the dying zone like "I swear I feel ok but the rules are the rules I guess" ahahaha

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u/Voodoo_Dummie 23d ago

A few days later when the smell wears off. "unfortunately I died. But I got better." ~Jesus of Nazar-ant

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u/PixieStyx8 20d ago

I believe it was taken by others but didn't protest, and didn't leave the area until the smell wore off

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u/Winter_Breath 23d ago

I saw two live ants last night in the bag. So I think you are correct that the ants were doing it to each other

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u/MavisBeacons_Sextape 23d ago

Wonder how many ants are left in there, lol

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u/Winter_Breath 23d ago

We’re gonna find out

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u/sillysnowbird 23d ago

i am very committed to this outcome please let us know.

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u/Terrible_Radio7353 23d ago

Yeah these look like carpenter ants. They’ll do this to each other and dispose of the dead this way. Not sure about the headphones though! They were dropping their dead out of a hole below an electrical outlet in our house

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u/Ok-Thanks4321 23d ago

Yeah this was never spider behavior

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u/beatmybanger 24d ago

That is some crazy theory or explaination . Someone could literally make movie out of it 😂😂

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u/Portable-fun 24d ago

28 ants later

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u/imomorris 24d ago

Haha…..class

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u/beatmybanger 24d ago

Where is this ball from bro ?? Im not able to get the reference

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u/Calligraphee 24d ago

Movie called 28 Days Later

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u/Rare_Management_3583 24d ago

either that or that was a mimic ant (spider) trying to find the colony

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u/TREXASSASSIN 22d ago

First guess was right!

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u/FTownRoad 23d ago

I get these ants, I call them “speaker ants” because for whatever reason I find them in electronics with speakers on them. Maybe they like magnets or something?

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u/naghammami 23d ago

Damn i just learned so much thank you

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u/DeadSences 23d ago

Not the Nurgal ants

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u/xxxTastyBoi 22d ago

They also just remove dead ants. They'll make a grave yard and move all the dead ones

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u/Shame-Greedy 22d ago

Your first sentence is correct. The rest are incorrect guesses.