WHY ANTS CAN’T CROSS OVER INK OR CHALK LINE
This is not magic but a simple phenomenon. As I have said in most of my videos about ants, they follow pheromone paths. Individual ants secrete pheromones, and other ants in their colonies have sensory organs that pick up the pheromone smell. These pheromone trails acts like roads which they follow.
VIDEO FOR DEMONSTRATION
Ants can’t walk over ink because ink has chemicals (like toluene and xylene) that mess up their pheromone scent trails and alarm them. When we use pens, the chemicals in the ink evaporate into the air and create odors that ants can smell. These smells confuse the ants and make them avoid walking on the ink. It’s like having a road you’re traveling on disappear right in front of you.
Toluene is a colorless, aromatic hydrocarbon that is often used as a solvent in various industrial and chemical processes. While Xylene is a colorless, flammable liquid that is part of a group of aromatic hydrocarbons.
Pheromones are complex chemical signals used by animals to communicate with each other.
If they stay there for a while though, they will gather themselves together and break the barrier.
Ants indeed are incredible animals, so smart, so organized and so developed. Some ant colonies are so developed that even humans who study them are left in awe.
Arojinle
