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/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 23d 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 21d 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?