> Are ants cannibals?
>
> A huge trail of ants (many hundreds) was on my kitchen counter last night
> so I sprayed them with vinnegar (I was out of windex so I used vinnegar
> instead). Being late, and wishing the vinnegar to discourage new foragers,
> I retired for the evening.
>
> Much to my chagrin, another, even larger swarm of Argentine ants had taken
> over my counter top, this morning - and the dead ants seem to have
> disappeared. I was surprised.
>
> So, I sprayed 'em again and left the area for a while. Sure enough, yet
> another swarm replaced the second, and I noticed some carrying away the
> dead bodies of their camerades.
>
> My question..... Are ants cannibals or did the inadvertant pickling entice
> them to cannibalism?