[ExI] anternet

Mike Dougherty msd001 at gmail.com
Thu Aug 30 19:29:02 UTC 2012


On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 5:49 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> I was most disappointed with them really.  No matter what I did, they never
> could figure out how to make both holes into one-way paths.  I tried
> dividing the holes with a strip of tanglefoot, I tried coloring them
> differently so they could tell the difference, no use.  These little beasts
> that can somehow manage to get a completely different beast to hand over
> nectar cannot figure out something so simple as making two adjacent paths
> into one-ways.  Instead they get all wadded up and piled on top of each
> other, many of them getting caught in the damn tanglefoot, generally looking
> like the billion stooges.

Do ants see color?  do they see it well enough to use it for
information?  I would be disappointed too if I put braille signs
behind glass that read either "push or pull" but people ignored the
signs completely.  It wouldn't be surprising that sighted individuals
would not even notice braille or that non-sighted would not be able to
feel braille behind glass.  (as contrived as this is, I saw a McD's
with exactly this situation.  I collect these amusing observations
else I'd have ignored it too)

Is there a chemical signal for "don't go in there" that could be
placed around the exit tunnel such that ants approaching would be less
likely to approach it without impeding the progress of ants already in
the tunnel going in the "correct" direction as they approach the exit?

And are the chemical trails used by the ants sufficiently powerful to
override anything you might come up with?  If the natural environment
lacks one-way streets, the traffic line to&from may be too strong to
program around.  If you hated to be wet and I sprayed you with water
each time you ate, your hunger would eventually overcome your
preference to remain dry.  Ants following their 'subroutine' don't
have much reason to deviate from that program in the natural world, do
they?



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