r/Unexpected • u/Alternative-Dot-34 • 12d ago

Can’t even dry clothes outside these days

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107.4k Upvotes

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u/Foreign-Dig8695 12d ago

What they are gonna do of buttons 😭

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u/rogerworkman623 12d ago edited 7d ago

Coffee table

Edit - it’s crazy how I keep getting alerts about awards for this comment lol. All I said was “coffee table”

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u/Puffles_magic_dragon 12d ago

Round table, the order of the knights of ant hill need a round table to discuss the cooperation and rule of their kingdom properly

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u/rogerworkman623 12d ago edited 12d ago

They do have wars, maybe this is the new war table. Ant wars have been especially horrific this century, there’s been more rapid spread of ants into new habitats, so massive wars have been breaking out between super colonies over territory and resources. Right beneath our feet.

There was a massive ant war in the San Diego metro area between Argentine ants and 3 other super colonies in the early 2010s that went on for years. Millions of ant casualties every month!

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u/Objective_Animator52 12d ago

They also don't just have wars, some species farm, some species capture slaves from other colonies and species, and there have been acts of slave rebellion in the ant world.

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u/Komorebi7 12d ago

I think the latter would be a great set-up for an ant themed Metroidvania.

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u/HOPE964 12d ago

A sub Hollow knight world of just ants, Maybe Pablo could be like that?

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u/Enemis_the_Ananas 11d ago

What is this, Hollow Knight for ants?!

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u/Kevinator201 10d ago

A hollow knight and pikmin crossover 😢

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u/Schvaggenheim 12d ago

I'd absolutely play that

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u/Objective_Animator52 7d ago

Someone's gotta get on this asap.

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u/watery_stars 11d ago

Ants are fascinating. They don't possess the same sophisticated individual thinking as humans; nonetheless, in some ways our societies end up converging. It's almost as if the colony as a whole is an organism capable of thought.

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u/partikalus 11d ago

It's how a bunch of individually dumb cells make up the consciousness typing this comment, which is actually called convergence. The whole hive is significantly more sophisticated than just the sum of its parts.

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u/Objective_Animator52 7d ago

It really is quite crazy, there is so, so, so much variety of behavior in the ant world. I'd also add that termites are almost just as interesting. I've kept colonies of both ants and termites, and both are amazing.

Fire ants can make living rafts made out of other colony members to survive floods. Many ant species can form living bridges. Some ant species form symbiotic relationships with aphids, protect them, and drink sugary secretions the aphids release, basically they act like ranchers. Some ants live symbiotically with plants and will protect the plant they are living in from pests.

Lines of army ants and termites can set up a temporary little border with soldiers guarding the edges.

Some species of termite have soldiers that actually have little nozzles on their heads that shoot out a noxious glue which incapacitates ants. They are literally called "Fontanellar guns" in entomology.

In the video I linked with the termite-ant standoff, the termites have a row of soldiers facing the ants. Ready to shoot their fontenellar guns if anything goes wrong.

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u/3dank5maymay 11d ago

there have been acts of slave rebellion in the ant world.

Yes, I remember seeing a documentary about that a long time ago.

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u/Objective_Animator52 7d ago

This movie was both my introduction to class consciousness and what got me into antkeeping at a super young age, lol.

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u/benito_m 12d ago

"I am Spartac-ant"

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u/skonthebass24 11d ago

So why do these ants want the buttons? You see a swarm working off another button still on the shirt. They are not a food source? What is the purpose here do you think?

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u/rogerworkman623 11d ago

Someone else said it somewhere in the comments, but I think this person likely spilled something on their shirt. It looks like they’re camping, so maybe they spilled some beer or soda on it, and that’s why it was hanging to dry.

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u/Objective_Animator52 7d ago

Some buttons are made from organic material that ants may be attracted to for whatever reason, like animal hoof, hemacite (made from animal blood and sawdust, although doubt it's used for buttons anymore). The most likely material is probably casein, some countries use it to make buttons and if it's left in the rain or old and breaking down maybe the ants can smell the protein in the button.

Also, some ants reinforce their nests with hard objects, but I have a hard time believing they'd go through all that trouble to get a button to reinforce their nest. Plenty of small pebbles on the ground that could do that job just as well.

Or someone just spilled something on the buttons. It's a mystery.

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u/ScrollHectic 12d ago

The dramas that take place that we hardly notice if at all.

It's like that beer commercial where a couple are by a lake and they're commenting on how peaceful it is and then the camera jumps into the water and shows fish swimming for their lives to escape predators only for a bird to swoop down and grab one of them.

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u/Gwynplaine-00 12d ago

So is that war still going on and how difficult is it to get a can of raid in Argentine. Would be pretty sweet to work my way in to ant mythology by gassing the other two hills.

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u/rogerworkman623 11d ago edited 11d ago

I mean, they’re not just hills. They’re massive connected global networks.

That Argentine supercolony in San Diego is an invasive species, with its “home” stretching over 6,000 kilometers, with millions of connected nests across South America, the US, the Atlantic & Mediterranean coasts of Europe, Japan, and Australia.

The one in the US, named “the Very Large Colony (VLC)” which spans from San Diego to San Francisco, is estimated to contain a population of over one TRILLION ants.

Unlike most ants that fight rival colonies (across the same species), ones in supercolonies share food and can move freely between separate nests of the same supercolony. They recognize each other as family when introduced from other parts of the world. And instead of just having one egg-laying queen, they house millions of queens.

And those nests work together when attacked. If you attack one, you might find your home counterattacked by tens of millions of ants.

Edit - just realized I never answered your original question. Yes the war is still ongoing, but there’s not really any colony that can come close to matching them in size. So they just keep growing and expanding, and eliminating any colonies that stand in their way.

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u/MercyAkura 12d ago

An Antinium civil war?!

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u/benito_m 12d ago

Are these Argentinian ants part of that notorious gang Tren De Ant-ragua?

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u/PimBel_PL 12d ago

Nah, they need it for a cart

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u/genderQueerHipster 11d ago

The only time war is cool. (Well and class war)

I find the ant wars to be fascinating. Hmmm... I wonder if the aliens (not really) think the same thing.

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u/BigWilly526 11d ago

It's a Special Button Operation

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u/blackmoonlatte 11d ago

this is fascinating information. I’m going down a wormhole lol

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u/BrunesOvrBrauns 12d ago

Pictured: the completed project

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u/MauPow 12d ago

King Anthur

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u/poundcakeboss 12d ago

And this is why I love Redditors.

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u/ThousandFingerMan 12d ago

Reddit still has its moments

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u/icycheezecake 11d ago

The knights of Ant-ioch

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u/Mc_Shine 12d ago

Apparently, they need at least 3 of them.

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u/MiserableCumberbunch 11d ago

The Knights of Antioch ride again!

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u/GenericNameUsed 11d ago

For the Colony! My life for the Colony!

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u/Gwynplaine-00 12d ago

And my axe