Fire ants are legendary for their skill to swarm together and self-assemble bridges, ladders, and even floating boats. Scientists have now learned the statistical rubrics that rule how fire ants form these assemblies, and this may help researchers in building swarming, miniature shape-changing automatons or robot swarms that might be able to slim down and access cracks and crevices. Fire ants show group intelligence and they’re also small which makes them relatively easy to observe and study. Scientists have measured how fire ant clusters flow under strain and have begun to understand their communication directions. Fire ant colonies keep flexible in their maneuvers by attaching and shifting their feet to the ants next to them, then latching onto a different ant every fraction of a second. So when force on an ant increases, the latching process moves quicker. And when the force on an ant’s leg reaches a critical point, the ant shifts its foot position to reduce the load. The ant clusters in this way can flow like a fluid or stiffen up to become solid.
Go Green Pest Control owner Randy Bilesky is a long-time South Delta resident. Trained and certified, Bilesky has first-hand knowledge of the pest problems that local homeowners and business owners encounter.
