Black garden ants take measures to prevent disease from spreading in their colonies
Leonid Serebrennikov / Alamy
When ants are exposed to a pathogen, they change the way they build their nests to reduce the risk of an outbreak.
Natalie Stroemate of the University of Bristol in the UK and her colleagues analyzed colonies of 180 black garden ants (Lasius NigelWe placed the beetles, along with larvae and pupae, in a container filled with soil and observed them building their nests. We recorded their behavior on the surface with a camera and performed periodic CT scans to reveal the shape of the nests they dug in the soil.
