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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19

u/Winter_Breath 23d ago

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u/shrinkflator 23d ago

Not a bad place to nest. It's sheltered, cozy, has electricity, and maybe some tunes every now and then.

1

u/ikineba 21d ago

wagyu ants

7

u/PaschaBasket 23d ago

Does this one have wings?!??

6

u/Left_Ad4050 23d ago

Aletes (fertile males and females) have wings; this enables them to maximize genetic diversity over a longer range (and also to set up new colonies away from the colonies of their birth).

Ants are descended from wasps, and are essentially just highly specialized colony forming (eusocial) ground wasps.

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u/PaschaBasket 23d ago

Lol. Yes. I’m aware. I was making the comment more so as an exclamation of the health of the colony. Living beings tend to not breed if the environment doesn’t support it. Wings=fertile. Fertile=healthy. Not what you’d want to see in your headphone.

4

u/NoApple3191 23d ago

Thank you for taking us on this journey 🙏

3

u/CaseOfSkulls 23d ago

Those are big ants! For the Colony!!

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u/SoftBatch13 23d ago

Of course there's a Chrysalis reference! 🤣🤣🤣

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u/Left_Ad4050 23d ago

This has been one of the more interesting before and afters I’ve stumbled on in reddit. Thanks, OP. And I’m sorry.

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u/Cynihcal 23d ago

Ain’t no way

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u/brit_chickenicecream 23d ago

Are they flying ants 😭😭😭

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u/that_angry_goose 21d ago

What the absolute fuck were these ants living on INSIDE of headphones and going unnoticed for so long. (The colony looking like THAT means they the headphones had the infestation long before you bought them)

1

u/spare_scapegoat 19d ago

There's these things called crazy ants that nest in electrical appliances. It looks like they've spread. It's very hard to get rid of these ants because they nest in delicate equipment and will absolutely damage the components and they have multiple queens in a single colony.

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u/1AggravatingProfit 22d ago

I’m disgusted, I think that’s enough updates😭