JukkaMay 31, 2025
Wood ants, my favorite insects. Their ventilated mounds are fascinating examples of insect engineering, and I often stop for a moment to look at them if I happen to encounter one in the woods. Unfortunately the ants are not too happy about it.

Their bite is surprisingly powerful and they spray formic acid. Later this ant probably bragged to its coworkers that it drove away the pallid and hairless colossus – and survived.

Back in the day I was taught to cut a small and fresh willow branch, debark it, lick it, and place it on an ant hill for about 10 to 15 seconds. The wood ants will spray formic acid all over the stick. Pick it up, remove any remaining ants from it, and find out what the acid tastes like. Has anyone of you ever done this? 😄

#ants
#woodants
#helsinki
#finland
#spring
#may
#antattack
BethOct 22, 2024

We went for a walk in Rothiemurchus woods today and all I got was this phone snap of a wood ants nest. It was there just by the path, complete with a few ants wandering about still. I guess they'll be snuggling up for the winter soon.

#WoodAnts #Rothiemurchus #ScottishHighlands

Old walkerJun 1, 2024
Formica Rufa ( red wood ants ) building their nest at Burnham Beeches nature reserve, Buckinghamshire, England. June 2024.
#woodants #ants #ameisen #burnhambeeches #buckinghamshire #england
myrmepropagandistJul 29, 2023
#antsOfMastodon #ants #anstodon #formica #woodants
PaulApr 4, 2023

A fabulous day out - the sun was out, the sky was blue and as for the bird-life - wow!

#Goshawk, Pied Flycatcher, and the best views of Purple Heron I've had in the UK (flying, standing in the open, walking like it owned the planet). Of course, I was so busy looking that the photos don't do it justice so you'll have to put up with a head -shot-in-a-ditch!

#birds #birdsofmastodon #wildlife #nature #TopdDay #WoodAnts #PurpleHeron #Ant

📷 #Treecreeper
📷 Wood Ants nest
📷 Purple Heron

Maureen LycaonJan 24, 2023

This just popped up on my radar again, might as well share it.

Read the story of the wood ants who fell down into a Soviet-era bunker, couldn't find their way out, and in desperate circumstances developed a society based on eating their own dead. And no, they aren't mutants. Happy ending!

#ants #woodants

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cannibal-ants-soviet-nuclear-bunker

The Saga of the Cannibal Ants in a Soviet Nuclear Bunker

And how scientists tried to free this formic Donner Party.

Atlas Obscura
SteveNov 19, 2022
Here’s the head of Formica sanguinea (there is notch in the clypea), one of the #woodants. Early this year I had a chance to watch their behaviour in the field on several occasions and they do some interesting things, hunting, foraging, carrying nest-mates. It is not a perfect animation due to some artefacts from #Helicon but it’s pretty good. #ants #mymecology #macrophotography
Elva RobinsonNov 7, 2022
Introducing myself to Mastodon! I'm a Professor of behavioural ecology, mostly using #ants as my model system to study collective behaviour and the ecological impacts of social behaviour. I do fieldwork on #woodants in the north of England, and run lab experiments and computer models too, and love collaborating all over the world. Also active in EDI in Higher Education.