Science & Tech

Thousand of Ants Form a Rope Bridge to Seize Control of a Beehive

by Derrick Rossignol
Aug 10 2018 • 1:32 PM
Do you remember that episode of SpongeBob SquarePants where Plankton recruits his multitude of extended family members to help steal the Krabby Patty formula, and how they were able to form a working human hand and ear in order to open Mr. Krabbs’ safe? Well it turns out that the SpongeBob-universe plankton are basically real-life ants: There’s a terrifying video of a bridge made entirely of ants connecting a beehive to a house, and nope we don’t need that (via Reuters).

In the video, you see what appears to be a black rope that runs between the roof of a house a beehive hanging from another point thereof.. That black rope, of course, is made entirely of ants. There are moments in the clip when ants can be seen carrying what look like grains of rice from the hive: Perhaps this is a hostile takeover and the ants are stealing bee larvae?

Whatever it is, it’s actually not entirely unexpected, since ants have previously demonstrated the ability to work together to achieve feats that none could accomplish alone. They’ve previously been shown collectively behaving like liquid metal and forming living rafts to float on water. The point is: Don’t upset a group of ants, because if they rally together behind a shared goal, they will take you down.

Does this video freak you out, or are you too enamored by their teamwork to be disgusted? Let us know what you think down in the comments!

Featured image: Katja Schulz/Flickr