The Ants That Sew Their Nests Shut Using Their Own Babies
Weaver ants stitch leaves together using their own larvae as glue guns.
Which one is REALLY true about the Weaver Ant?
The short version
Adult weaver ants cannot make silk. So they carry their own larvae out to the seam and squeeze them until they release silk, using their young as living needles.
Why it's so weird
- ✓The Weaver Ant builds its nest by stitching living leaves together while they are still growing on the tree.
- ✓The Weaver Ant carries one of its own larvae out to the seam and squeezes it gently until it releases silk.
- ✓The Weaver Ant cannot produce silk at all as an adult, so it uses its young as living tools.
- ✓The Weaver Ant links its body to other workers to form living chains that haul a distant leaf edge closer.
- ✓The Weaver Ant passes a larva back and forth along the join like a needle until the leaves are sealed.
You could line up about 122 of them along a 7-year-old!
The full story
These ants build their nests by sewing leaves together, and they use their own babies as the glue guns. A weaver ant colony lives up in the trees, inside nests made of living leaves stitched shut. To build one, a line of workers grabs the edge of a leaf and hauls it toward another, sometimes forming chains of ant bodies to bridge a gap too wide to reach. Then comes the strange part. Other workers run back into the nest, pick up a larva, carry it out, and squeeze it gently over the seam. The larva releases silk. The adults cannot produce silk at all, so they use their own young as living tools, passing them back and forth along the join like a needle until the leaves are sealed. Follow for more weird animal facts.
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“The Weaver Ant builds its nest by stitching living leaves together while they are still growing on the tree.”
“The Weaver Ant is barely five inches long, yet builds a sand circle almost seven feet across, nearly twenty times its own body length.”
“The Weaver Ant carries one of its own larvae out to the seam and squeezes it gently until it releases silk.”