What happens to ants when they get old?
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District Level
Stakeholders workshop on Legal Empowerment Projected held.
CHITRAL : A day long workshop for district level stakeholders on Legal Empowerment project was
held by Sarhad Rural Support program
(SRSP) funded by Open Society Foundation. Stakeholders from all line department
on district level participated in this workshop for counseling regarding
launching legal empowerment project. This is just like legislative session to
sought opinion of all stake holders of heads all government, semi government
department governing bodies, district bar association journalists and civil societies Rahmat Wali
shah team leader of SRSP briefed the
stakeholders regarding provision of free legal assistance to needy and
deserving people. He said that in past all projects were based on monopoly
basis but now it focus on public opinion and Legal empowerment project will
frame after gaining opening of head of all government departments. Ghulam
Hazrat advocate president district bas association Chitral said that district
bar association campaigned for launching
high court circuit court in Chitral as in past people were face to
travel to Swat or Peshawar high court causing for wastage of time and money. He
criticized elected representatives that they did nothing in this regard nor
they supported lawyers for establishment of high court branch at Chitral. Other
stake holders expressed their views regarding providing of free legal
assistance to needy and poor segment of Chitral and hailed efforts of SRSP. As
Para-legal will trained in this regard who will raised the issue in case of any
injustice or cruelty with helpless people. SRSP will detailed a panel of
lawyers providing them free legal assistance. Former district Nazim Maghriat
Shah, former MPA Chitral Maulana Abdul Rahman
hailed SRSP efforts who have registered 610 village organizations both
of male and female and trained them in different developmental sector like
Honey bee keeping, house hold enterprises, handicraft etc. A large number of
stake holders comprising on military, police, civil officers and head of line
department, Mangers of different banks, lawyers, paramedics, journalists,
social workers participated in workshop.
G.H. Farooqi C/O
Manager bank Islami Main branch Chitral phone No 0943-320737, 0943-316052,
0943-414418 , 03025989602, 03337069572,
03159698446, 03469002167
email:
gulhamad@gmail.com
Question by Don M: What happens to ants when they get old?
For us humans, we retire.
But what about these insects?
Add your own answer in the comments!
5 Responses to What happens to ants when they get old?
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They shrivel up and die in a corner because the queen works them until they die. =3
Nova
February 28, 2013 at 2:43 am
Generally they do not reach an old age, but if they get to a certain weakness, they are recycled back into the food chain of their colony.
andrew g
February 28, 2013 at 2:58 am
Ants just work until they die. Each one has a particular job to do within the nest, and she does it to the fullest. They don’t live very long, and they don’t “retire”. The queen is the longest living and can make it to several years, depending on the species. The workers, live only a matter of days. Within their nests, they often have a chamber which is devoted to the ones who die. The other workers just stack the bodies within it, or discard them from the nest altogether.
This, of course, only pertains to the species of ants living in colonies, unlike the ones who are solitary, like the Giant Hunting Ant of the South American Amazon Jungle.
BWANA
February 28, 2013 at 3:42 am
Ants, termites and bees are eusocial insects. The eusocial insects form colonies, with division of labor. A lucky(?) few become queens and they devote all their lives laying eggs. Some become drones, or males that do not perform any task except to mate when a new queen emerges. Most become workers. These are daughters of the queen, which perform most of the dangerous tasks, like finding and bringing back food. The worker ants and bees do not reproduce. They simply work until they drop dead. When they are dead, they are piled up in a refuse heap sometimes. E.O. Wilson, the Harvard ant expert, figured out that ants use chemicals to communicate. When ants die, they give off a chemical (don’t remember which). When he applied the chemical to a living ant, the other workers unceremoniously carry the living ant onto the refuse heap. There is no retirement home for worker bees or ants. They are entirely under the control of their mother, the queen.
Scientists used to think that the worker bees and ants voluntarily give up reproduction to help raise their sisters because their sisters are more closely related to them than their own daughters. That sort of misguided thinking eventually led to the development of so-called sociobiology and similarly misguided books like The Selfish Gene. It has since been demonstrated that the worker ants and bees forego reproduction because of parental manipulation, rather than giving it up voluntarily because of inclusive fitness advantages.
Nevertheless, many scientists are unaware of the new research and they continue to espouse the believe that worker ants and bees volunteer to be sterile workers. Needless to say, many biology textbooks remain similarly unenlightened and outdated.
Cal King
February 28, 2013 at 4:18 am
basically they work till they die
then the other ants move the dead one away to reduce the risk of disease
Ro .
February 28, 2013 at 4:28 am