Life in the InfANTry

Ah-ten-hut! I am Sergeant Sand. You will address me as drill sergeant, not ma’am or miss. My mission is to train recruits to follow orders, respect superiors, and serve with honor. I demand excellence. Understood?

Chain of Command

In the army, everyone has a rank and a role. The queen is our top officer. She lays eggs that hatch into larvae that grow into recruits. Male ants, called drones, don’t do squat. They just help make babies. Female ants, called workers, are the real heart and soul of the operation. We attend to the queen, care for larvae, gather food, dig tunnels, and defend our fort against attacks.

Fort Allegheny

Ants command the largest army on Earth. There are over 20 quadrillion of us — 20,000,000,000,000,000 — and over 12,000 different kinds. You have the honor to serve as an Allegheny mound ant. We patrol pastures, prairies, and savannas and build large mounds of soil. Some can be 6 feet wide and 3 feet tall — quite an engineering feat for a rice-sized insect! Tunnels connect the mounds. This one will be your barracks.

Defend the Fort!

I don’t bark out orders. I command troops by waving my antennae and releasing airborne chemicals called pheromones (fair-uh-moans). And right now, recruit, my pheromones are yelling, “We’re under attack!” On my command, soldiers swarm out of the anthill. Some are large and armed with strong, sharp jaws. They bite the enemy and spray acid into the wound. It feels like being stung by a bee.

Food Patrol

An army marches on its stomach. We can’t be battle ready if we aren’t well fed. As a new recruit, I’m assigning you to an important mission: finding food. You will zigzag over every inch of terrain around our mound until you find something fit to eat. Once you do, return to base immediately, in a straight line if possible. Tap your belly on the ground as you go. This will leave a trail of pheromones — like a chemical map — for fellow troops to follow.

Building Bridges

There is no “I” in team, recruit, but there sure is a “u” in unit. And there isn’t an obstacle ants can’t overcome when we work together as a well-oiled unit. You see a water-filled ditch. I see an opportunity to build a bridge. Bravo Company: Lock your legs to form a bridge! Charlie Company: March those eggs and food to the other side! Hut, hut, hut!

Helping the Helpless

An army’s job is to protect the weak. Squishy aphids offer easy prey to lady beetles and spiders. Part of our mission is to stand guard over the little squishers while they slurp plant sap. We wield bitey jaws and stinging acid to beat back would-be predators. Sometimes we even move the aphids to plants that are more tender. In return, they give us honeydew, a sweet liquid that comes out of the not-so-sweet end of an aphid.

Chow Line

Despite our fearsome jaws, adult ants can’t eat solid food. That’s why we like honeydew! But here’s some top-secret intel: Baby ants can chew through food like a rabid beaver in a lumberyard. We feed the youngsters caterpillars and apple cores and anything else we find. They keep some for themselves and throw up the rest to feed the troops. Now aren’t you glad you joined the infantry?