Mostly all of us know the feeling of getting high and with that it comes to mind whether ants can get high. Why ants? Because most of the time you’ll see ants rather an any other insects drinking alcohol or other substances which makes human high however does it really make ants high? Follow through this article to know it whether ants can get high or not.
Can ants get high? The answer is it depends upon what kind of substance ants are consuming. If its alcohol then yes. If its marijuana then its no. Here is the reason why
How Does Ants Get High?
It has been seen that ants get high if they take alcoholic beverages. When ants high they behave differently they can’t walk properly and sometimes they even forget their track to their home. Alcohol messes up with their normal functionality. It has been seen that wine is one of the most potent alcoholic beverages for an ant.
Ants have very complex mechanism to get high from alcohol however the lack the cannabinoid receptors which is responsible for getting high by marijuana and that’s the reason they can’t get high on marijuana. If ants behave abnormally after eating marijuana then it can be because of the smoke and carbon dioxide poisoning.
Several experiments were conducted and it has also been found that ants can also get temporarily get addicted to substances like drugs much like human. They choose drugs over sugar it has been seen that those drugs secrete great amount of dopamine in their brain as a result they get addicted to those drugs.
What Happens When They Get High?
The most common behavior that you can see when ants get high is lose their balance and can’t move straight. They will fall down often. These two behaviour are the easiest way to identify that they are drunk. They can also over consume those alcoholic beverages especially if the drink is wine and beer.
It’s because as you know it takes time for these beverages to take effect and ants don’t realise it and they continues to drink as much as they like as a result they get heavily drunk. Wine is made from fruit fermentation and it also contains sugar that attracts ants. Strong alcohol however seems to repel ants. Since, wine and beer is a moderate that is not too strong not too light alcoholic beverage so ants really love it and they get high when they drink sufficient amount of wine and beer.
However it can be possible that ants may not directly drink wine or beer on the first sight because they are not completely familiar with the smell of wine or any alcoholic beverages so, they will hesitate at first unless they have previous experiences If sugar water is kept aside wine or beer that will attract ants in that way they will start consuming wine or other alcoholic beverages is near the super water mixture.
Can Ant Die From Consuming Alcohol?
There are no proper evidence that proves and ants can die from consuming too much alcohol. However they can die if they great drowned in alcohol while trying to consume it. While trying to consume alcohol if they can’t get out from the bottle, cup or whatever place they are drinking from then they can die.
They don’t drink alcohol that are too strong like Vodka, Ethyl alcohol. There only attracted by moderate to light alcohol which doesn’t smell too much because the moment they get the strong smell of alcohol they will go away from that area. However if you mix poison in wine or other alcoholic beverages when ants are consuming it. Then they can die not because of the alcohol but because of the poison.
Can Alcohol Get Rid Of Ants?
Yes, there are certain alcohol that can help you to get rid of ants. Alcohol like ethanol alcohol and isopropyl alcohol can help you to kill ant.
- Just take 30 ml of isopropyl or ethanol alcohol in hundred ml of water
- Put it in a sprayer and
- Spray it over ants to get rid of them and also kill them
These two alcohols not only kills but also repels ants and stop them from infesting your house. If they are coming near your food you can also create a barrier by using this mixture to stop them.
To stop from from entering your house just spray this mixture and put it in front of your doors, windows, cracks and crevices in walls, furniture etc. Ants enter your house from these places. Doing this will stop ants from entering your house.
Can Ants Get Sick From Consuming Alcohol?
There is no substantial proof that ants can get sick from drinking alcohol however much like human they can feel the hangover for 24-48 hrs depending upon the amount of alcohol consumed. Ants behave abnormally when they are drunk. They are seen to roll over on their belly when they are drunk but these are just after effects of getting drunk. It’s not because they are sick.
Long term effects are still not studied. No one really knows what will happen if ants are exposed to alcohol or drugs over years. It is possible that ants can have some problem since alcohol and these drugs changes brain chemistry but this just a theory no test has been conducted on long term effects of alcohol and drugs over ants.
Can Other Predators Get Drunk From Eating Drunken Ants?
It depends. If the drunk ants becomes a prey within few hours after consuming alcohol or drugs then it is possible that the predator may feel some effect however if 24 hours has passed then there is no chance for the predator to get drunk just by consuming drunken ant or ants.
There is also another factor to it since, ants are small creatures if a big predator like rats eats them they may not feel a things. It’s because they need much high amount of alcohol or drugs to feel the effect. However if small creatures like some species of bees end up eating drunken ants then it’s possible that they may feel the effects of it.
However it’s possible that these predators may not even prey on the drunken ant because they can sense if their is something wrong with their prey. They would rather prey on the healthy ones unless those ants get too close to the predator. also no one wants to have a sick food because it can make them sick. So, on that instance ants life can get spared if they are drunk.
Are Ants Addicted To Alcohol?
There has been no substantial prove that and they addicted to alcohol however they occasionally consume alcohol made from flowers and rotting fruits and they get drunk. Not only ants but other insects, birds, butterflies are also seen to get drunk from consuming various kind of rotten fruits or fermented fruits. These fermented fruits contains naturally made alcohol which ants, birds, butterflies consume and get drunk and shows similar effect much like humans.
They can’t move properly, they can’t fly properly and sometimes forget the path to their home. You can see this happening sometimes however fermented foods also have sugar which attracts ants automatically and as a result they get frequently drunk. All ants are attracted towards sweets so that’s the reason you can see group of ants repeatedly coming to feast on those fermented fruit.
Some studies shows that ants can choose addictive substances over normal food but that doesn’t necessarily proof that they are addicted to that substance they just temporarily feel the addiction i.e. they choose the addicted substance instead of the normal food and can feel the effect of that substance but it’s not very clear whether they will get addicted to it or not.
How To Recover Ants After They Are Drunk?
If you have pet ants and if they are drunk then you can do the most simplest thing to get rid of their hangover that is to leave them alone for a while along with that you can put some water very carefully over them to reduce the hangover even faster. Depending upon how much alcohol they have consumed it will take around 24 to 48 hours for for ants to get completely normal. This time they can behave abnormally so, don’t be panic if this happens because those are normal when ants are drunk.
Some common symptoms include unable to walk properly, unable to bite and unable to eat properly. These are common symptoms that fades away once they return back to normal. If there are some other ants that not drunk and if they come in contact with drunken ants it has been seen that those normal ants actually throw the drunken ants into water to get rid of their unusual behaviour. Ants have a very strong sense of smell so they can easily identify if there is is anything wrong with other ants or not. They can simply smell it.
That’s it we hope this article answered your query and helped you in understanding can ants get high and what happens if they get high.
Welcome to my blog. I have been doing pest control for years since my house, garden and pets were always attacked by various kinds of pests and as a result I had to know proper pest control techniques that works. In this blog I share all the tips and tricks that I know and I hope you’ll find it helpful.
