REAL LIFE NEWS: ANTS PERFORM CLEAN-UP DUTIES
by Hazed
If you see an ant your reaction is likely to be hostile. You may avoid it. You may tread on it. If you find an ant’s nest, a kettle full of boiling water may be deployed. But perhaps you should think again about ants, because it seems they are useful creatures.
Scientists from North Carolina State University have discovered that ants help to clean up the streets. They forage for dropped foodstuffs and clear away the waste.
The researchers carried out experiments in New York City. Over a 150-block section, they dropped hot dogs, cookies and potato chips, then monitored what happened to the food waste to find out how much scavengers could eat in a 24 hour period.
They discovered that insects and spiders, and in particular ants, acted as voracious consumers, clearing the food trash at a rate of up to 14 pounds of waste per block per year. That means up to 60,000 hotdogs, 200,000 cookies or 600,000 chips.
The big consumer was the pavement ant, a warrior species that aren’t fussy about what they eat; any old junk food will do.
That doesn’t mean you should stop putting food in the trashcan. If you drop it in the street it’s going to attract much more undesirable scavengers, like rats.
What we really need, of course, is a creature that can consume non-food waste. Maybe some specially trained bookworms could tackle discarded newspapers…
Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ants-are-cleaning-up-the-streets-of-nyc/
