7 ms·

RTFA

• pavel_lishin 10y ago
  Ah, so it is 100% maintained by new ants falling through every year. I had no idea individual ants could live for over a year!
  • noobermin 10y ago
    Implying that the rate of falling ants is quite substantial enough to overcome the rate of death.
  • Zitrax 10y ago
    Workers live from 1 to 3 years. A queen ant can live for up to 30 years! I guess less down in that environment though.
    • pavel_lishin 10y ago
      That's incredible. I always thought it would be on the order of weeks for a worker, and maybe a few years for a queen. I feel extra bad for killing these little guys as a kid.
      • ajuc 10y ago
        Well they have to survive the winter somehow, so it must be at least several months.
• sctb 10y ago
  No matter what the original commenter has said, the guidelines ask you not to do this: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html