yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

How to get Ants to carry a sign - Smarter Every Day 92


3m read
·Nov 3, 2024

Hey, it's me, Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day!

So, you're probably wondering, if you've been watching the Amazon series, how it took an 8-pin, a little scrap of paper, and a camera into the middle of the jungle, and walked out with footage of ants carrying a little sign that says "Smarter Every Day." It's actually pretty simple and gross: you pee on the paper. I know, sounds a little weird, but you got to realize that leaf cutter ants forage for sodium.

But before I show you how exactly we did this and you get to see us make the video, I want to show you a leaf cutter ant colony during the daytime, and then we'll go back and check out the same colony at night. We get Smarter Every Day!

This whole area is a colony. Is that what you call it?

Yeah, these colonies are known to just be giant. They're foraging ants, so they take in those leaves; they grow fungus on it. So, that's a tenth of that fungus very, very regularly. The smaller ones, they really ride on the leaf, and they clean the leaf. They also protect the carrying ant from any decapitating flies that are in the area.

Really? Mmhmm. They clean the leaf on the weighted colony.

Yeah, so one guy, like a bigger ant, will be carrying it, and the little cleaner ant will be on top. They're protecting it and cleaning it from any fungus or any crazy stuff that may be on the leaf.

Awesome! Is there red or millions of ants inside this colony?

So, this is one of several entrances—probably one of their main highways that they used to go and collect leaves. I'm also told they have one of the most complex social structures.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I mean down to the finest of details. Even like the ants that go out and cut, once they get old, maybe like three months old, and they can't cut as well, then they become carrying ants. So, they kind of retire as a leaf cutter and then they become a leaf carrier.

These are leaf cutter ant trails. They look like people trails, but they're not. One way you can tell, you get really close, you see next to them, you see all the little cut leaves. So, you can see some of them are starting to come out a little bit. So, I bet you if we came back in a few hours, they'd come out and go for the trees.

So, what we're going to do is we're going to cut out little pieces of paper, and we're going to put some salty liquid onto a piece of paper. We're thinking that it will entice them, but I'm going to find out.

Put your headlamp on the leaf. There you go. There you go!

All right, so what do you want to do first?

I've got the "worst smarter every day" one, and I got it wet on the backside, so it doesn't quite...

All right, it doesn't bleed, right? You know, I know mostly the area, so I put it right here.

Yeah, you want pliers? We want to put...

Need a bigger... can we make it bigger?

No, focus was perfect. So that's it! That's how you get leaf cutter ants to carry your sign. Special thanks to Mr. Torres here, of course, entomologist—he's the guy that came up with the idea.

Work well?

All right, that's it. Get Smarter Every Day!

You're not playing nice anymore—going for my face! Imagine that!

Even if I would have thought so, this one's too big. So, of course, leaf cutter ants are cutting, which is still pretty cool sounding.

Yeah, it's about 20 yards away.

More Articles

View All
15 Ways to Buy Back Your Freedom
Freedom is more than money, but money definitely contributes to you buying your freedom. The truth is, most people get it twisted: money doesn’t buy happiness, but neither does being broke. If you know how to use it, money buys freedom, and freedom gives …
Catch of the Week - Wicked End | Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks
[Music] Here they are, 15 down to 25. We’re marking. I’m not going to rest easy until we’re ahead of Reel of Fortune. Come on, give me the go here in a [Music] second. We’re on, we’re on! Woohoo, there he goes! Double header! Watch that other rod! Hurry u…
3D Home Printing for the Developing World – Alexandria Lafci and Brett Hagler of New Story Charity
How about we start with you guys explaining what you do, and then we’ll go back in time and talk about how you ended up doing YC and all the rest of it. Also, sure! So, we’re a nonprofit, one of the first ones to go through Y Combinator, and we build hou…
Multiplying and dividing by powers of 10
In another video, we introduce ourselves to the idea of powers of 10. We saw that if I were to just say 10 to the first power, that means that we’re just really just going to take 1. If we have 10 to the second power, that means that we’re going to take …
The One Ring Explained
These books are all about this ring. How it’s found and [spoiler alert] how it’s destroyed. While Tolkien built the largest and most consistent fictional universe, he sure didn’t mind being vague at times. So, if you finished the story and then thought: w…
YouTube vs Grey: A Ballad of Accidental Suspension
‘Twas a Sunday morning when I woke up, happy and ready for the day, when suddenly… [alarm sounding] (as YouTube bot) Your access to YouTube has been suspended. (as Grey) Wha… why? (as YouTube bot) Because of a perceived violation of the terms of servic…