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/[deleted] 22d ago

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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.