[HN Gopher] Ants trapped in a Soviet nuclear bunker survived for...
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Ants trapped in a Soviet nuclear bunker survived for years
Author : MaysonL
Score : 112 points
Date : 2025-10-03 17:01 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.sciencealert.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.sciencealert.com)
| withants wrote:
| (2019) with ants
| russdill wrote:
| No, they didn't survive for years. They died after a short time,
| but their ranks were continually replenished by fresh ants
| falling from a colony above.
| trhway wrote:
| ants of Theseus
| ge96 wrote:
| Kill 1 ant, 2 more shall rise to take its place
| Rendello wrote:
| Or fall.
| jmdeon wrote:
| I guess the interesting thing is they built and maintained a
| nest which looked mostly like a colony. The colony's food
| source being the fresh falling ants you mentioned.
|
| > "In total darkness, they have constructed an earthen mound,
| which they have maintained all-year-round by moulding it and
| keeping the nest entrances open," researchers wrote in a study
| in 2016, noting these ants are "a far cry from a fully
| functional colony".
| johndhi wrote:
| With no queen how could they reproduce down there after the
| originals died of old age though?
| Rendello wrote:
| From the article:
|
| > They were not reproducing, though. Instead, the
| population was being replenished through sheer accident.
| IAmBroom wrote:
| So you're saying the article itself has information about
| what the article contains?
|
| Fascinating.
| Rendello wrote:
| I try not to get my heart rate up.
| nemo wrote:
| The ants who fell in died after a while, but the story is
| really about how they survived to form a colony close to a
| million through survival by cannibalism.
| xattt wrote:
| Thank you. I was trying to figure out how entropy was
| maintained after food was metabolized.
| httpsoverdns wrote:
| So very happy that the story ended with them giving the trapped
| ants a path back to their colony
| spiderxxxx wrote:
| No, they gave the cannibal ants a link to a new food source.
| Imagine you're living in your house, your neighborhood, and
| there's this large pit in the center, where the cannibals live.
| They're 30ft down so they can't get out, so you don't have to
| worry. Then someone puts a ladder down to them. Start of a
| horror movie if you ask me.
| neom wrote:
| This comment is full of interesting questions! Would they
| return to being normal ants due to the environment shift? If
| they are now truly just "cannibal ants" and not regular ants
| acting in an opportunistic cannibal manner, would they even
| bother going to the colony, or would they just kinda zombie
| around eating other ants? And do these new ant types need to
| function together in this new style?
| ekaryotic wrote:
| actually there was a chinese serial killer that used a
| technique like this. He had a septic tank and threw his
| victims in along with the dead bodies of his previous victims
| and would only let them out if they brought more victims from
| a train station. article is partially paywalled but is the
| case in question. https://archive.is/QxBDr
| https://medium.com/crimes-by-mr-o/this-teacher-was-thrown-
| in...
| carlosjobim wrote:
| Literal hell for ants, until they were saved by a supreme being.
| cm2012 wrote:
| "Boy am I glad not have consciousness right now" the ant said,
| as the nearby ants start tearing at him, in the cold pitch
| black of a nuclear bunker.
| balamatom wrote:
| Vyell, fak.
|
| Imagine visiting the basement at Omelas and _this_ happens.
|
| Poor ants.
| staplung wrote:
| "Difficult to tell from this vantage point if they will consume
| the captive Earth-men or merely enslave them...one thing is for
| certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here!
| And I for one welcome our new insect overlords. Like to remind
| them that as a trusted TV personality I could be helpful in
| rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar-caves."
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4jWAwUb63c
| rbanffy wrote:
| This is the kind of story older ants tell young ones about what
| happens when you stray into dark and forbidden tunnels.
| dudeinjapan wrote:
| Why didn't they just climb out the ventilation shaft they fell
| in? Can't they walk on the ceiling?
| waltbosz wrote:
| From the research paper:
| https://jhr.pensoft.net/article/38972/element/2/11//
|
| > The upper part of the ant trail in Fig. 1; the ants (on the
| left) were unable to move along the ceiling and thus could not
| reach the outlet of the ventilation pipe. Photo taken on
| 18.09.2016 (Wojciech Stephan).
| waltbosz wrote:
| > In 2016, researchers installed a wooden boardwalk (below) in
| the bunker, connecting the ventilation pipe to the ground. Within
| four months, nearly all the trapped ants had deserted the bunker
| floor.
|
| It sort of feels like the ruined a good experiment.
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(page generated 2025-10-03 23:01 UTC)