TIL about ant communal disinfection 🐜💊🌿🌼:
Fire ants feed their larvae venom, likely as an internal antibiotic link
Lasius neglectus (invasive garden ants): not only do they mechanically remove fungal particles, they chemically disinfect other ants by applying venom link
Wood ants essentially make their own antibiotic: they mix their own venom and the coniferous tree resin that they use as nesting material, which synergistically enhances the resin’s disinfecting properties, thus potentiating the inhibition of fungi growth in the nests link
Ants who are caring for an infected mate can acquire an essentially asymptomatic infection, which increases susceptibility to a different pathogen. In order to reduce this chance for superinfection, caregiving ants who are infected with a pathogen A will groom (physically remove infectious particles with their mouth parts) and disinfect with venom other mates infected with the same pathogen but will avoid physically grooming those infected with a pathogen B, preferring to spray venom from a larger distance to avoid superinfection. link
