Wooden structures?
- Thread starter Nanaro
- Start date
Ants don't build structures.
They DO however make large entrances smaller by piling up debris so only one or two ants at a time can pass through, which also protects the nest completely from larger ant species and other larger arthropods (and mammals like mice etc.).
Sometime ants even completely close their nest entrances, this is preferably done by younger ant colonies when they're well-fed. While most ant species do not really like to fight their own kind for some ant species (especially 'pavement ants' like Tetramorium or Lasius niger) other ants of their own species are the biggest threat, so it's better to not have an entrance at all until the colony is large enough to fight an all out war.
Some ant species even pile their garbage and random dirt into the nest entrances of their rivals (often other species) plugging them so the other colony has to waste time and energy to clean up their entrance which they can't use to forage food (and thus grow larger).
This is a common game between for example between Myrmecia bull ants and Camponotus sugar ants.
They DO however make large entrances smaller by piling up debris so only one or two ants at a time can pass through, which also protects the nest completely from larger ant species and other larger arthropods (and mammals like mice etc.).
Sometime ants even completely close their nest entrances, this is preferably done by younger ant colonies when they're well-fed. While most ant species do not really like to fight their own kind for some ant species (especially 'pavement ants' like Tetramorium or Lasius niger) other ants of their own species are the biggest threat, so it's better to not have an entrance at all until the colony is large enough to fight an all out war.
Some ant species even pile their garbage and random dirt into the nest entrances of their rivals (often other species) plugging them so the other colony has to waste time and energy to clean up their entrance which they can't use to forage food (and thus grow larger).
This is a common game between for example between Myrmecia bull ants and Camponotus sugar ants.