Board 8 > Why don't ants ever get sick?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Because they have little anty bodies.
---

They do
---

:\
---

i shook my head and closed the page but then 10 seconds later i laughed against my will so i had to come back to say that
---

My man
---

My first thought was some word play with 'antidote' but I was still caught off guard
---

TomNook posted...

Because they have little anty bodies.

Shouldn't it be why do ants always get sick?
---

Corrik7 posted...

TomNook posted...

Because they have little anty bodies.

Shouldn't it be why do ants always get sick?

No because antibodies fight viruses and antibodies are little
---

Because generally speaking, the insect body plan and survival strategy doesn't support long lifespans and is focused on short generations and low resource investment in any individual. This is especially true among eusocial insects, where the workers are expendable resources. As such, worker ants who get sick don't stay that way for long - they simply die, typically leaving the nest to prevent infecting the rest of the colony.
---

I've heard ants have really powerful antibiotics though. So they do get sick less often in the first place too.
---

[ Man Narrating ] All my life,|I've lived and worked in the big city,
which, now that I think of it,|is kind of a problem,
since I always feel|uncomfortable around crowds.
I mean it.|I have this fear of enclosed spaces.
I-I-I-- Everything makes me|feel trapped all the time.
You know, I always tell myself there's|gotta be something better out there.
But maybe I--|maybe I think too much.
I-I-I think everything|must go back to the fact...
that I had a very anxious childhood.
You know, my mother|never had time for me.
When you're the middle child|in a family of 5 million,
you don't get any attention.
I mean,|how is it possible?
And-And I've always had these|abandonment issues which plague me.
My father was-was basically a drone,|like I've said.
And, you know, the guy flew away|when I was just a larva.
And my job, don't get me started on,|because it really annoys me.
I-I was not cut out to be a worker,|I'll tell you right now.
I-I-I feel|physically inadequate.
My whole life,|I've never been able to lift...
more than 10 times my own body weight.
And, when you get down to it, handling|dirt is, you know-- [ Shudders ]
is not my idea|of a rewarding career.
It's this whole gung ho,|super organism thing...
that-- that, you know, I can't get.
I try, but I don't get it.
I mean-- What is it? I'm supposed|to do everything for the colony.
And-And what about my needs?|What about me?
I've gotta believe there's someplace|out there that's better than this.
Otherwise, I would just curl up|in a larval position and weep.
[ Sighs ]
The whole system makes me feel...
[ Exhales ]|insignificant.
---

This topic made me curious as to whether cell size is proportional to the size of the organism.

I now know that elephant sperm is roughly the same size as human sperm, and there are about 200 billion of them released on average when an elephant ejaculates.

.....thanks
---

mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell
---

lol
---

SockoressKnight posted...

This topic made me curious as to whether cell size is proportional to the size of the organism.

I now know that elephant sperm is roughly the same size as human sperm, and there are about 200 billion of them released on average when an elephant ejaculates.

.....thanks

slightly related but cool
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutely
---

that's adorable
---

I make them sick with ant traps.

Then they bring home their unknown illness and wipe out the colony.

Anty-bodies be damned.
---