The vortex of ants, called the ant death spiral by some, is a circular mill where a group of ants (sometimes hundreds to millions of ants) get separated from the main swarm and ended up following each other’s scent in a circle. It’s called the death spiral because they continue to go in circles until they’re exhausted and die.
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] | More at The Ant Room
Barking Bud
That would require a hell of a lot copper coins to get rid of….
unimportantbob
Well, isn’t that just the creepiest thing I’ve seen in my entire life.
Jessss
I’ve heard about single ants doing this, but not this many!
Apparently some ant species have a built in odometer so they can calculate how many steps it will take them to get back to the nest in a straight line. So when experimenters either shortened their legs or glued on tiny stilts, they either under- or over-shooted the mark where they thought the nest was, and then proceeded to walk in increasingly larger concentric circles, hoping to come across the nest, but often dying of starvation and exhaustion before they found it.
Obviously a different mechanism to what’s causing these ants to walk in circles, but pretty interesting nonetheless.
An article:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4114287,00.html
And the free abstract in J. Exp. Biol.:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/312/5782/1965
An interesting read if you have a subscription.
It would make a great Neatorama story!
buzzhunt
More about this ants circle of death phenomenon here http://www.buzzhunt.co.uk/2009/07/15/ants-spiral-of-death/
marcusbacus
The software Visions of Chaos has a very interesting “ant simulator”, you can set the amount of feromones and how long its trail lasts, amount of food, etc.. It takes some time until it gets funny but it’s quite interesting to see the patterns they follow. There are times that the ants are sort of trapped in a line that goes nowhere and until another ant touches someone in that group while still with a bit of feromone enough for it to be followed they just get stuck there forever. There is also some very interesting fish x sharks simulator.
The Slapster
“…they continue to go in circles until they’re exhausted and die.”
Huh, sounds a lot like how I feel at the end of a work week.
Live Eels
I am feeding a troll here, but MeatisYummy seems to have a rage issue.
And I agree, poor ants. Insects experience pain and suffering too.
lulu
WillF, so, you hate Microsoft, IBM and Apple and Google all those big companies, huh?
Bummer, I’m pretty grateful myself, ’cause I get to use this crazy thing called Internet cheaply and easily.
Minnesotastan
I think MeatisYummy’s personal attack on LisaL should be deleted.
masada
Does anyone else see the “Milky Way” in that?
TELL me it’s not all relative.
beastman
Someone should drop a fat grub in there and film it getting demolished.
Jimmy Morrison
in ever decreasing circles till they disappear up themselves lol
CelticSkeptic
It’s neat, but would have been much easier to see if it hadn’t been filmed by someone with Parkinson’s disease.
susan~The eXchanger
do NOT be like ‘the ants’
do NOT follow any leader, but, thyself 
nage
Too bad the picture has no clear focus, first time I see anything like that, will search more info and videoclips
Steve M
Amazing images, I wonder what causes this to occur in the first place?
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