About ANTS ...

Recently, the opposition Singapore People's Party has been going door to door within the Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, selling white T-shirts featuring a caricature of a red ant with boxing gloves. The assistant secretary-general of the party when interviewed said, "The red ant represents the party's never-say-die spirit. Ants see no obstacles. If you put a stone in front of them, they will make a detour or climb over it. We are like small ants in the political scene here. But when ants come together, they can move mountains."

How much do we really know about ants and what else can we learn from them? According to the New International Reader's Version of the Bible, Proverbs 6: 6 says, "You people who don't want to work, think about the ant! Consider its ways and be wise!". The New Life Version says, "Go to the ant, O lazy person. Watch and think about her ways, and be wise." So, it looks like we can gain wisdom by watching how the ants work!!!

If you watch ants for any length of time you will see that they really do communicate with each other and very effectively too. Ants communicate by touching each other with their antennae. Ants also use chemicals called pheromones to leave scent trails for other ants to follow.

Ants can be found almost anywhere on the planet. Ants are social insects, which means they live in large colonies or groups. Some colonies consist of millions of ants. There are three types of ants in each species, the queen, the sterile female workers, and males. The male ants only serve one purpose, to mate with future queen ants and do not live very long. The queen grows to adulthood, mates, and then spends the rest of her life laying eggs. A colony may have only one queen, or there may be many queens depending on the species. Ants go through four stages of development: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.