Today’s quote:

“Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans.”

– E. O. Wilson

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How many ants are there? More than anyone could count. More than everyone could count if we all counted together as fast as we could for all our lives.

There was an article in the Washington Post about estimates on ants’ numbers. Below is a random quote from the article, but you can read the rest of it here if you have a subscription.

“By tunneling, ants aerate soil and drag seeds underground to sprout. They serve as a source of food for untold arthropods, birds, and mammals. While carpenter ants are pesky to homeowners, forests would be stacked to the brim with dead wood without the decomposing power of wood-destroying insects.”

Scientists’ best estimates approach the total number of ants on earth to be 20 quadrillion, a number so big that it’s hard to visualize. I found a YouTube video to try and put $1 quadrillion into perspective.

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To conclude this fANTastic post today, I’ll include a copy of Adventures Among Ants by Mark W. Moffett for more fANTastic reading material.

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Riddle:

What do you call a haunted chicken coop?