The Great Escape, Trappies edition – Issue #65

Hello Explorer,

It is commonly known that ants have very good climbing abilities, however this is a half-truth. All ant species have a varying ability to climb up surfaces. This ability ranges from Superhero to zero. At the Superhero level like in the case of the Weaver Ants (Ocoephylla spp), which can not only run on any smooth surface, but can make acrobatic jumps from one slippery leaf to another without any issues.  A the zero level, like in the case of large ground dwelling ants that never even try to climb a steep incline, as in the case of Rugged Ringbum Ant (Bothroponera spp.).

 My Troglodyte Trapjaw colony (Odontomachus troglodytes) and I have been in a continuous disagreement over the last year. They are continuously trying to escape, and I must continuously make new plans to keep them contained! A true arms race if you’d like to call it that.

Initially it was an easy solution. Put them in a glass tank. They have a 0.5 out of 100 climbing ability, specifically when it comes to glass. I could leave the lid open to dry out the outworld in the case of overwatering it (which happened a few times), and not worry about them climbing out.

After a few weeks they started using the bodies of their mortal enemies, the termites, to build a staircase on the glass sides to escape! This started a continuous battle between the ants and myself, they would build the staircase with termite heads about 5cm up and then I would scrape it off with a glass scraper. But this become a daily exercise, so I had to get ahead of them again.

After searching for the perfect solution for a few weeks, I stumbled over it by accident. I added springtails to the enclosure. They multiplied exponentially, and devoured the termite remains faster than what I was feeding termites. By doing so the springtails eliminated the source of the termite heads for the trapjaws to use as bricks!

The ants, however, are not deterred by the repeated setbacks and increased security measures. They just change their plans and try again.

They have now reached around 200 or more ants in the colony, so they are becoming a strong colony, and with numbers comes a greater hive mind to generate new escape strategies (If you would like to read some more about hive mind and hive intelligence you can read Issue #17). With this hive mind they have figured out a way to use their 5mm thick substrate layer as building bricks. The substrate is taken out in small roundish pieces, which they then use as building blocks. The gaps between the little bits increases the volume of the substrate greatly. Further than that I’ve witnessed them taking small droplets of sugar water and putting it onto the substrate before taking out a piece to go build. The sugar water is used like cement to stick the soil pieces to the glass, and with a little bit of drying. The fact that the soil pieces now stick directly to the glass allows them to increase the size of the gaps between the pieces of soil, once again stretching their very limited building materials to reach the top. Yes, they are at the lid currently and every time I open the lid to feed, water or clean their outworld there is one or two of them that manages to get out and I must catch them and put them back in.

This is where this fight is currently at, but neither me nor the ants are going to give up, but we are going to continue this war.

The question now is, why do I even tell you this elaborate story of how the trapjaws are overcoming every obstacle I give them to prevent them from escaping? Because this not only shows the unwavering determination and will power of these ants to escape, but also that they have learnt new behaviour to escape captivity, in ways that one cannot imagine.

If you would like to send me a message with your answers, feel free to do so on Instagram @abugmanslife or via email to [email protected].

Weekly Top Shot: The Droptail Drone