Ants are colonial insects living together and cooperating in nearly all aspects of their lives. They communicate directly by touching various segments of their antennae together, and indirectly by releasing chemicals onto the surfaces on which they walk. The effectiveness of communication between ants is responsible for those long and busy ant trails you see so often.

Food and water are of prime importance to ants, just as they are to other animals. You have probably seen ants carrying pieces of food to their nests. Ants eat such diverse foods as peanut butter, fruits, and other insects.

In dry areas of the country ants may burrow deep into the ground for moisture but may be seen scurrying about with their eggs whenever their nest becomes wet. Ants, like most animals, must make living adjustments several times a year to remain in an acceptable environment. Inadequate food or water, or excess water, may cause them to enter human homes where they can often find both food and water or escape flooded soil.

• 30 cotton swabs 1 to 2 liters of water
• 1 sprinkler can or bottle 12 small paper cups
• 12 popsicle sticks Masking tape or transparent tape
• 2 medicine droppers Assorted Ant Foods (peanut butter, 3 pieces of cardboard ice cream, cereal, nuts, jam, jelly 1 master each of two sheets soda pop, popsicles) of Action Cards 5 soda straws
• Add extra materials for a larger 1 duplicated Action Card for each group team of two (plus a few extras)

Allow 40-60 minutes for activities.

Introduce the activity by calling the kids over to an active ant trail and asking them what they know about ants. After listening to their ideas, tell them that they will investigate ant behavior during this activity.

1. Trying Ant Foods
   • As the youngsters watch, prepare a flour solution in a cup by adding a little flour to some water to make a thin flour paste. Emphasize that only small amounts of food or bait should be offered to the ants.
   • Stir the solution with a cotton swab, and use the swab to dab a little next to an ant trail.
   • Observe the responses of the ants for a minute. (They may appear to investigate the solution, but probably will not eat it, and may avoid it altogether.)
   • Express your disappointment at the failure of the ants to eat your flour solution. Ask the kids for some suggestions on foods that ants will eat, or on how you could change the solution to make it more appealing to the ants.
2. Discovering Super Foods
   • Suggest to the youngsters that they use the foods you brought to find one that is a "super" food for these ants.
   • Inform the kids that the ants may not eat some undiluted food such as jam, but may eat it after water is added to it.
   • Point out the cups, popsicle sticks, swabs, and so forth to the children, and tell them that each team of two will prepare its own super foods. Organize the distribution if necessary.
   • Tell the kids to use tiny amounts of food. Divide the group into teams of two, point out the boundaries of the site, and begin.
   • Encourage the kids to share their super-food findings with each other.
3. Discovering Other Ant Responses
   • After the kids have discovered a super food for the ants in your area, invite them to try some other investigations.
   • Give one of the duplicated Action Cards to them.
   • As the kids work on their investigations, visit the teams to see how they are doing. Encourage them to show or tell you what they have discovered. Encourage the teams to try other ideas they may have that are not on any of the Action Cards.
   • After a team completes an investigation, offer another Action Card.
   • Before you have to stop the activity, gather the kids for some idea sharing.

1. Ask the youngsters what they discovered about ants. Have the teams read their Action Cards and describe their results.

2. Ask the youngsters what techniques they could use to keep their homes from ants without using poisons. Suggest that they try out their ideas the next time ants invade their homes.

1. Try to get some of the ants from a colony to start a new one by providing them with lots of food at another location.

2. Carefully carve away the opening to the ant nest without tearing up the next. Are there any tunnels? Other exits? Cross tunnels? What do the ants do?

3. Discover what kinds of materials ants avoid or refuse to use as pathways. (You might try wood, metal, plastic, water, or concrete.)

4. Find out how ants around their nests respond when a different kind of live ant or an ant from a different next is placed

Further Antics

1. Try to get some of the ants from a colony to start a new one by providing them with lots of food at another location.

2. Carefully carve away the opening to the ant nest without tearing up the next. Are there any tunnels? Other exits? Cross tunnels? What do the ants do?

3. Discover what kinds of materials ants avoid or refuse to use as pathways. (You might try wood, metal, plastic, water, or concrete.)

4. Find out how ants around their nests respond when a different kind of live ant or an ant from a different next is placed there.

5. Find out what ants do at night.

Action Card

Fanned Ants

Create wind on an ant trail to determine what the ants do.

Materials: piece of cardboard to wave or soda straw to blow through.

Action Card

Changing an Ant Trail

Which is the best way of changing an ant trail:

1. Providing rewards, such as laying down a new trail of food?

OR

2. Blocking the old trail with some object? (Rocks, sticks)

Materials: super food, rocks, soil, sticks

Action Card

Ants Sometimes Get Lost

"Lose" an ant by letting it crawl onto a leaf and setting the leaf down close to, but not right on, the trail.

What does the ant do?

Place an ant from one trail or colony onto another trail or colony.

Materials: popsicle stick, dead ant or other animal

Action Card

Block an Entrance

Find the entrance to an ant nest. (If you haven't located a nest yourself, check with a team that is following ant trails to the nests.) Using a pencil or a small stick, partially block the entrance. What do the ants on the outside do?

Materials: stick or pencil