'Come and kill me': Sick ants invite destruction to save colony

Queens do not seem to commit this act of self-sacrifice; when adult worker ants get an illness that could spread through the colony, they leave the nest to die alone

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Adult worker ants kill a terminally infected pupa inside its cocoo at the lab at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria in Klosterneuburg.

(AFP FILE)

Sick young ants release a smell to tell worker ants to destroy them to protect the colony from infection, scientists said on Tuesday, adding that queens do not seem to commit this act of self-sacrifice.

Many animals conceal illness for social reasons. For example, sick humans are known to risk infecting others so they can still go to the office — or the pub.

Ant colonies, however, act as one “super-organism” which works to ensure the survival of all, similar to how infected cells in our bodies send out a “find-me and eat-me” signal, according to an Austria-led team of scientists.