We’ve been poisoning ants this week, so I got curious about what strategies and colonies had evolved for dealing with poisonous food sources in the wild.

On cold, damp days, starving ants often march into homes seeking food, and some homeowners put out poison to try and stop them. But ants have evolved three successful ways to combat both poisonings and famine, including sacrificing some ants as poison tasters.

The findings, accepted for publication in the journal Animal Behavior, may apply to humans — and not just those with ant invasions — because they show how food can be distributed quickly after a famine, while also guarding against sickness, or even death, from poison.

https://www.seeker.com/poison-taster-ants-help-save-colonies-1764994009.html