{"id":7967,"date":"2009-07-01T11:44:47","date_gmt":"2009-07-01T17:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/?p=7967"},"modified":"2009-07-01T11:44:47","modified_gmt":"2009-07-01T17:44:47","slug":"ant-mega-colony-dominates-world-sunday-bbqs-forever-threatened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/2009\/07\/ant-mega-colony-dominates-world-sunday-bbqs-forever-threatened\/","title":{"rendered":"Ant Mega-Colony Dominates World, Sunday BBQs Forever Threatened"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to @deepeight<\/a>, we are forever fearful of our six-legged under-lords.<\/p>\n

\"THEM!\"<\/a>Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same interrelated colony, and will refuse to fight one another.<\/p>\n

The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What’s more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together.<\/p>\n

Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica. <\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

In Europe, one vast colony of Argentine ants is thought to stretch for 6,000km (3,700 miles) along the Mediterranean coast, while another in the US, known as the ‘Californian large’, extends over 900km (560 miles) along the coast of California. A third huge colony exists on the west coast of Japan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article<\/a> goes on to say that this mega-colony of ants won’t attack each other. They’re all friends. From Japan to Europe to the US. They like each other. The antageddon is upon us. Here we thought robots <\/a>would be our downfall.<\/p>\n

For a better idea on how the world will end, follow the jump.
\n<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object> <\/div>\n

Well, not exactly like that. Instead of giganticized crushing death, it will be the death by one billion bites.<\/p>\n

(via bbc<\/a>, @deepeight<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to @deepeight, we are forever fearful of our six-legged under-lords. Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same interrelated colony, and will refuse to fight one another. The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,9],"tags":[1345,1346,1347,1350,1348,1349,262],"class_list":["post-7967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals","category-science","tag-6-legged-domination","tag-antageddon","tag-antagone","tag-antarctica-will-be-the-only-safe-haven","tag-bbc","tag-mega-colony","tag-worldwide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}