Ants use babies as living glue

Tiny larvae become construction materials for ant colonies. Wild, right?

By Smartasaurus· 2 min read Wild

Imagine a bunch of ants working together to pull two leaves shut

Scale check

Gut call — how extreme does this actually get?

Reality tends to overshoot. Pick your ceiling.

The short version

Tiny larvae become construction materials for ant colonies. Wild, right?
The larvae do not get to use the silk on themselves.
Humans figured out sewing roughly forty thousand years ago, with bone needles.

The ants pull a leaf into position. Then they pick up their own babies and use them as tools.

Weaver ants live in the canopies of tropical Asia, Africa, and Australia. Their nests are made of green leaves stitched into hollow footballs that hang from branches. To make one, a chain of adult ants grabs the edges of two leaves and pulls them together, sometimes forming living bridges of dozens of workers linked jaw to abdomen across a gap.

Then another group fetches the larvae.

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