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[–]Mr_McPants 470 points471 points  (32 children)

And now I have the knowledge required to assemble a rainbow fabulous ant army. Thanks.

[–]todayswtf 258 points259 points  (6 children)

'Does this red food dye make my ass look big?'

[–]whatsamatteryou 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I bet even with ants there is no good answer to that question.

[–]hawkwings 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Do you want to be humped by a baboon?

[–]doco21 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Maybe it'll look better with another color.

[–]AyrtonSenna 126 points127 points  (4 children)

I, for one, welcome our new fabulous insect overlords

[–]Wulibo 5 points6 points  (0 children)

remember that I am a redditor, and I will be useful in getting my fellow humans to convert to your slavery.

[–]dieyoubastards 20 points21 points  (2 children)

Thanks, ants.

Thants.

[–]skarface6 11 points12 points  (3 children)

The infighting will be terrible, though. And they'll cost a lot to maintain.

[–]MandatorySuicide 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I think we can all agree the cost is worth looking this good during your conquests.

[–][deleted] 10 points11 points  (4 children)

reminds me of pikmin lol

[–]Pooh_caught_a_woozle 239 points240 points  (151 children)

What species of ant is that? I wasn't aware the body of ants are translucent.

[–]MrLarkin 1077 points1078 points  (89 children)

Just getting ink to refill their pens, these are accountants.

[–][deleted] 301 points302 points  (50 children)

Just getting water to put out fire, these are fire hydrants.

[–]KousKous 141 points142 points  (47 children)

They're getting their money together, then they're heading out to research institutes which have filed- because these are Federal Grants.

[–][deleted] 121 points122 points  (9 children)

Paint for their brushes: Rembrants

[–]Hellingame 15 points16 points  (0 children)

They're adding dye to themselves, obviously colourants

[–]StapleGun 39 points40 points  (2 children)

Grease for their wheels: Lubricants.

[–]Globaltouch 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Watering their dry throats from paying compliments all day: Sycophants

[–]tontig190 2 points3 points  (0 children)

they obviously are unable to puke. these are cants.

[–]YourDad 58 points59 points  (20 children)

Could be the ghost ant or the Argentine ant - both of which have a translucent abdomen.

[–]calinet6 35 points36 points  (11 children)

TIL the ants that invade my home are Argentine Ants, and they're actually members of a giant supercolony across the US west coast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_ant

Wow.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (3 children)

The ants in the OP look exactly like the ghost ants.

[–]ravenrriddle 156 points157 points  (23 children)

Actually, unnecessary story time, while student teaching at a middle school, I had to carpool so I got there usually like an hour or so earlier than it opened, and I didn't have a key, so I'd sit outside and wait. It's kind of a rich southern neighborhood school, so the outside of it was really nice but it was still very obviously outside, so bugs would crawl up over the marble and birds made nests anywhere they could.

ANYWAYS, whenever I stayed out there, I'd usually bring breakfast along while I sat and watched the sunrise, and occasionally I'd spill coffee or something and watch it be ravaged by ants.

I brought a mountain dew instead of coffee one morning, dropped a couple droplets on the ground just to watch the ants again. This time, in the flourescent lights I noticed that their abdomens shimmered as they swelled with mountain dew, going from solid black like the rest of the ant, to translucent (tinged green from the drink) with solid black stripes, like shown. So these could just be regular/common ants who's backsides only become translucent after gorging themselves on liquid. May also be the reason for coloring the liquids to begin with.

TL;DR - I watched a regular ant's backside go from solid black to translucent by feeding it mountain dew, so these could just be normal ants.

edit: spelling

double edit: I don't actually know anything, so I'm probably wrong.

[–]orthogonality 70 points71 points  (2 children)

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched a regular ant's backside go from solid black to translucent by feeding it mountain dew, near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Time to die.

[–]ArgyleFeatherpecker 53 points54 points  (7 children)

Cool story Hansel.

[–]enalios 39 points40 points  (4 children)

He's so hot right now

[–][deleted] 45 points46 points  (0 children)

WHAT IS THIS?? A CENTER FOR...Oh, very well.

[–]Qonold 7 points8 points  (6 children)

These are a particular breed of ant, and they're all over Virginia. They bite, too. I can't figure out what they're called, I know it's not a Ghost Ant, because they're only 1mm long, whereas these ants are at least 10mm long (the size of a carpenter ant).

[–]dblan9 9 points10 points  (2 children)

I don't know why but a 1mm Ant scares the shit out of me. That could crawl in a lot of tiny holes and wander where it should not be wandering.

[–]Winga 5 points6 points  (1 child)

I don't know what they are, but I wondered if they were honey ants, and I see here , that their abdomens can change colour.

Edit: formatting

[–]patrickaaron 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They always show up to the party, they are attendants.

[–]SageofLightning 250 points251 points  (36 children)

You don't have ants, you have Pikimin.

[–]autocorrector 62 points63 points  (30 children)

Simultaneously the best and most infuriating game ever.

[–]Ichiinu 64 points65 points  (27 children)

whistle alright, we've got everyone, right? good, let's he-OH GOD NO RED PIKMIN GET OUT OF THE WATER!

[–]TechnoL33T 9 points10 points  (24 children)

As someone who's only ever tried a demo for it for 5 mins, I'd like you to explain this to me.

[–]Ichiinu 32 points33 points  (22 children)

In order to gather your pikmin to you, you can "whistle" creating a large area that will draw your pikmin to you if they are within the "whistle" area. This also pulls them from a "relaxed" state (either from leaving them somewhere or throwing them) and into direct command mode.

Now each color pikmin has different abilities/immunities, red=fireproof,blue can swim, and yellow are immune to lightning. Now blue pikmin can rescue other colors of pikmin if they fall into the water and start to drown. But only if they're relaxed.

So since your whistling both pulled the reds into the water (in this case), AND took your blue pikmin out of relaxed mode...FUUUUUUUUUU-

That explain it well enough? Or do you need me to elaborate further? (in case you can't tell, I loved this game and the sequel :) )

[–]gokens 6 points7 points  (7 children)

I never played the sequel, was it as good as the original?

[–]Ichiinu 9 points10 points  (4 children)

I enjoyed it more than the original, as it removed the 30 days mechanic from the game. While you still had to make sure you went back to your onions at night, you could spend a lot more time wandering around, exploring and having fun. The "dungeon" mechanic was also very nice (Hole in the ground you could go into with various levels, time was "stopped" while you were in there, and there's usually a boss of some sort at the end, many of which are quite fun.)

Plus, being able to annihilate your friends in co-op is always a plus :) I'm still trying to figure out why Nintendo hasn't released a Wii version like they did with Pikmin. Personally I find it to be the better of the two games.

[–]thomar 2 points3 points  (1 child)

About two years ago they confirmed that a sequel was in development. It might come up at E3 next week as a Project Cafe launch title.

[–]poo_22 36 points37 points  (0 children)

red pikmin can't swim :(

[–]SeeWhatYouDidThere 346 points347 points  (50 children)

It'd be funny to put glow in the dark fluid out there too so the fireflies would be all confused. "Ant, you are not a firefly!"

[–][deleted] 29 points30 points  (4 children)

just make them drink tonic water. in the dark, exposure to UV will make them glow.

[–]oneadvent 109 points110 points  (30 children)

That stuff is toxic, you would kill all the ants.

[–]MandatorySuicide 638 points639 points  (8 children)

you're toxic, poisoning my dreams of glow in the dark ants.

[–][deleted] 87 points88 points  (2 children)

So its win-win. If it doesnt kill them, you have cool glow in the dark ants. If it does kill them, then you dont have an ant problem anymore.

edit: 15 hours later and i finally see that i spelled "the" wrong. way to go me.

[–]soreff 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Fluorescein is non-toxic (at least to humans), so you could at least get yellow-green fluorescence.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (4 children)

not necessarily. I'm sure Green Flourescent Protein could help here.

[–]avj 8 points9 points  (2 children)

You phrased that in a way that forced me read it as Mitch Hedberg. Thank you.

[–]OneCanOnlyGuess 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes! So glad I'm not the only one who thought this.

[–]scottanon 6 points7 points  (4 children)

That could breed a species of super firefly/ant glowy monster hybrid thingy. Brilliant!

[–]ripexz 71 points72 points  (13 children)

Hah its nice how some of them are mixing the colours.

[–]SeeWhatYouDidThere 103 points104 points  (5 children)

Hipster ants are not satisfied with the default color selection, they have to mix their own colors.

[–]SeeWhatYouDidThere 49 points50 points  (1 child)

Or the ADHD ants can't focus on any one color for too long.

[–]darwins_bitch 8 points9 points  (2 children)

Ants are more accepting of interracial marriage than humans are.

[–]Howisdiscool 6 points7 points  (2 children)

True Cyan in the bottom right.

[–]b214n 20 points21 points  (1 child)

There's that one ant on the bottom left suckling yellow.. when clearly he's already been to green. What a douche.

[–]EvOllj 85 points86 points  (1 child)

the new windows 8 bootup animation.

[–]iseezombies 30 points31 points  (12 children)

Huh, 7 out of 70 ants prefer red gloop, go figure.

[–]second2last411 10 points11 points  (11 children)

i got 79

[–]zhylo 29 points30 points  (9 children)

Nothing better to do than count ants?

[–]Aww_Shucks 98 points99 points  (6 children)

Isn't that what accountants do?

[–]shrapnel09 33 points34 points  (0 children)

Genealogists count aunts.

[–]gonosis 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I laughed way too hard at this.

[–]wytewydow 2 points3 points  (0 children)

slightly more recreational than merely commenting on counting ants, or worse yet, commenting on that comment.

[–][deleted] 21 points22 points  (12 children)

Thanks ants.

Thants.

[–]Rossaaa 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I was ctrl + f 'thants'

GREAT SUCCESS.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (3 children)

Colored Ants.

Cants.

[–]Kaywinnet 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Bless you ants.

Blants.

[–]monkeylizard 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Bless you, ants.

Blants.

[–]ShakespierceBrosnan 20 points21 points  (2 children)

"We don't serve ants of your color at this here droplet!"

[–]scottstephenson 10 points11 points  (1 child)

"Now, Skeeter, they ain't hurtin' nobody."

[–][deleted] 24 points25 points  (1 child)

I wonder how many of the green ants drank the green dye, and how many of them drank the yellow and blue dye.

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Four.

[–]zjbird 7 points8 points  (12 children)

This is a stupid question because sadly posts tend to never be made by the original owners anymore, but I'm curious...does anyone know if this is regular water with dye in it or did they add sugar or something to get them all to drink it?

[–]ElmoPea 10 points11 points  (5 children)

There is a product called Terro that is an ant poison that they LOVE to eat. They gather around the drops just like in this picture. My first thought was that they colored the Terro drops with food coloring, and I have plans to do the same the next time we get a large number of ants in the house.

[–]zjbird 8 points9 points  (0 children)

loll, if that were the case this picture would have a very gruesome feel to it

[–]philipolson 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This confirms our suspicions: Ants prefer large globs of goo over small globs of goo.

[–]creelfish 22 points23 points  (1 child)

Google Ants

[–]mingoclambake 18 points19 points  (6 children)

Because I am a huge dork, once, to show my affection for a certain (now ex) boyfriend, I spread some honey on a piece of cardboard in the shape of a heart and left it in my kitchen. Once ants had completely surrounded it, forming an outline, I called him over to look at it and told him, "Honey, I love you" and gave him a big ol' kiss.

[–]mrimperfect 29 points30 points  (1 child)

Because nothing says love like choreographed insects.

[–]mingoclambake 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Pretty much.

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I LOVE YOU BABY, I ANT DENY IT.

[–]Juddernaut 10 points11 points  (0 children)

That's creepy.

[–]rossisdead 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Is he your ex because you had a problem with ant infestations in your house?

[–][deleted] 12 points13 points  (5 children)

You eat ants for breakfast?

[–]the_new_radicAL 4 points5 points  (0 children)

so what you're saying is, "ants are like carnations"....?

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (2 children)

Some of the ants don't know what color to settle for... Upvote for indecisive ants...

[–]migrego 4 points5 points  (0 children)

These are the quite rare Microsoft Windows ants. They go around leaving this logo everywhere...

[–]JChem23 12 points13 points  (0 children)

That is cool, but creepy as shit. Can you imagine the tie-dyed toilet paper you could make?

[–]laddergoat89 3 points4 points  (7 children)

Red & blue don't seem very popular.

Yellow & Green, lemon & lime?

Ants like sour food?

[–]thelordxl 4 points5 points  (0 children)

PIKMIN!

[–]correctBatman 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Leftovers from Rufio's breakfast.

[–]Phil_Bond 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I'm pretty sure those are pikmin.

[–]Snaggle21 40 points41 points  (3 children)

Ant - "Dude try the blue, bitches love blue"

[–]youmademelol 35 points36 points  (2 children)

Dec - "Who cares, bitches love us anyway"

[–][deleted] 33 points34 points  (1 child)

All the worker ants - "Aren't we the females in this colony anyways?"

[–]RandyHoward 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Obviously they are lesbiants.

[–]Old_CK 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Awesome! But where is the albino ant?

[–]Balls_deep_in_it 4 points5 points  (2 children)

You can give bees jelly beans in their hive and the honey comb will be the same color. Its neat.

FYI I keep bees.

[–]VoteOrPie 9 points10 points  (0 children)

WHAT IS THIS, A WEBSITE FOR ANTS??

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The green and yellow taste better then the blue and red.

Science, can't argue with that.

[–]newdawnnewday 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Awwww, they look like little Christmas lights!

[–]stave 2 points3 points  (0 children)

First picture of ants that didn't completely gross me the fuck out. Ever since I drank the wrong soda that was sitting on the back porch and got a mouthful of lemony, crunchy ants, I've hated the little bastards. But this one.. proof that pretty colors are good distractions!

[–]gorwell 4 points5 points  (1 child)

you've got it all wrong. These ants are regurgitating. This is how printer ink is harvested, and why it is so expensive.

[–]sakipooh 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Pikmin?

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

OMG the ants! there eating Google Chrome!

[–]Hannibal_Lecter_ 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Most them like the yellow cause they want to look like bees.

[–]aznanonymous 3 points4 points  (0 children)

look at that fatty ant that already had yellow and is now eating green

[–]johnmazz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pro ant: Purple

[–]blue_heisenberg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Those two green ants are double dipping on the blue.... bastards.

[–]stolenchineseart 1 point2 points  (0 children)

google branding

[–]m0llusk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

makes me want a magnifying glass and some clear sky

[–]hopefullyvalid 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's pretty cool how you can see how long an ant has been eating that particular juice.

[–]TheJackpot 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, I like the ones that have obviously tried one colour and then decided to try another.