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Excavating a Huge Ant Nest [ Video ]

youtube.com — The structure covers 538 square feet and travels 26 feet into the earth. In it’s construction, the colony moved 40 tons of soil. Billions of ant loads of soil were brought to the surface. Each load weighed four times as much as the worker ant, and in human terms, was carried over 1/2 mile to the surface.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jan 17, 2008

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267 Comments

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  • pimpofpixels, on 01/17/2008, -3/+260That was way cooler then I was expecting. If you don't feel like watching the whole thing skip to 4:11 to see the excavated ant colony.
  • LemurHorde, on 01/17/2008, -2/+229These ants are pretty large ants by the way, those big mandibled guard ants can maybe brush half an inch. Native Americans would actually make sutures out of ant heads. They would apply one of those big guard ants to a the edges of a wound. The ant would bite down and then the native would pinch off the rest of the body and start the process with another ant until the wound was held closed by ant heads. I got to spend a bit of time around some leaf cutting relatives in Central America and they are just horrible biters. Accidentally step on one of their trails and they're swarming up your legs trying to hack you to pieces before you realize where you just walked. To actually go and stand on their nests and dig into them... those scientists deserve some sort of medal.
  • ccm1120, on 01/17/2008, -9/+161Why the hell is this under Images if its video?
  • Ciffirakkun, on 01/17/2008, -0/+142I saw this when it aired on TV, and if I'm remembering correctly, the farmer who owned the plot of land needed to get rid of the colony anyway. Instead of just killing the ants, he called this team of scientists to get something productive out of it. It may sound kinda harsh, but at least they got something beneficial out of it... and a cool video.
  • rstarr, on 01/17/2008, -0/+115Humans 6 billion - Ants 6 trillion
  • bexy4506, on 01/17/2008, -5/+118"Ah giant air tube...nom nom nom"
  • 1b2a, on 01/17/2008, -3/+108Dugg for incredibly fascinating information.
  • Golov, on 01/17/2008, -10/+115Humans 1 - 0 Ants
  • aussieNickuss, on 01/17/2008, -22/+123Their "cities" are awesome, but realize that these guys wiped out an entire colony of ants. That's like somebody dropping a massive load of cement right on top of New York, just to see how it looks.
  • mattewood, on 01/17/2008, -3/+81***** that's pretty crazy. I thought it would be some boring ant hill destruction, but it was actually quite educational.

    Dugg.
  • superdoofus, on 01/17/2008, -7/+79And I for one welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted digg.com user, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.
  • inactive, on 01/17/2008, -2/+73 I never had an ant farm as a kid, got one when I was already in my 30s.... I found them to be extremely fascinating.. The way they move objects around to fit through a passage, their communication with each other, they have a trash area where they also put dead bodies. If you never had one, they are absolutely fascinating.
  • jpwhitmore, on 01/17/2008, -0/+65I've got one of those trash areas too
  • truspect0r, on 01/17/2008, -6/+67Hey PETA boy. Consider these RIP'd ants contributed to science.
  • sykotik, on 01/17/2008, -0/+57It's not alluded to in the video, but most likely, there are a lot of dead ants encapsulated in 10 tons of concrete.
  • leidendude, on 01/17/2008, -1/+57I thought the tiny ant colony at the end was pretty badass
  • Dylson, on 01/17/2008, -3/+56Human efficiency:0
    Ant efficiency:6 trillion
  • 1b2a, on 01/17/2008, -6/+56Chuck Norris ant at 5:07. Tons of concrete fail.
  • jmpeagle, on 01/17/2008, -12/+60a few million less ants is a bad thing?
  • hramos, on 01/17/2008, -2/+48I read that the owner of the farm needed to get rid of the colony but decided to call in these guys first. So, they were all going to die anyway.
  • surfmore, on 01/17/2008, -0/+44I heard that they put the ants up in a hotel back at the village for a few weeks while they made the video.
  • Rewdog, on 01/17/2008, -0/+42Ant Armageddon as concrete comes from the heavens....
    The next version will have a better defense system.
  • frickindeal, on 01/17/2008, -4/+43Am I the only one who was a bit bummed out when they started pumping concrete into the living ant city?
  • ConcernedCanuck, on 01/17/2008, -0/+38Yep blew my mind, best video on digg today.
  • burak1, on 01/17/2008, -1/+38I read that too, in the comment right above yours.
  • tyywebb, on 01/17/2008, -0/+37Where else would you put your dead bodies?
  • Fracture98, on 01/17/2008, -2/+35I thought it was nuts.
  • cyroxos, on 01/17/2008, -0/+31http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3896139/07.11.17.Ants- ...
  • tribble222, on 01/17/2008, -1/+32Its....... THEM!
  • jmpeagle, on 01/17/2008, -4/+34he didn't
  • KingGorilla, on 01/17/2008, -1/+30Crappiest ant tunnel ever. I'm going back up the main thread
  • Ajjah, on 01/17/2008, -1/+29I thank the Lord every day for placing all these wonderful creatures on the earth. If it were not for his meaty balls, and lightly seasoned, noodly appendage, none of these wonders would exist!
  • FireAtWill, on 01/17/2008, -1/+29That music scared the hell out of me. It was as though a Superant was just sitting in wait, ready to eat everyone.
  • dclowd9901, on 01/17/2008, -0/+26Fry: Psst! Leela! You've got to get me out of here! It's horrible! Eating scraps; letting my waste drop wherever it falls, like an animal in a zoo!
    Leela: Animals go in the corner.
    Fry: The corner! Why didn't I think of that?
  • davidwasman, on 01/17/2008, -0/+24For those wanting to see the full program (2 hrs) it's available as a torrent - http://www.mininova.org/tor/506434

    Originally aired in March 2007
  • logandurand, on 01/17/2008, -0/+23And THEN kill them all!
  • K00q33m0nsta, on 01/17/2008, -1/+24Saw that Ant-Head suture thing on Apocalypto (Mel Gibson movie).
  • Ojoo, on 01/17/2008, -1/+23Anyone have a link to the rest of the video?
  • Pinkertinkle, on 01/17/2008, -3/+25No one's going to be laughing when the ants come to our cities and pours cement all over em.
  • msergeant, on 01/17/2008, -1/+21In plastic bags in the harbour...
  • Luigi5454, on 01/17/2008, -3/+23Bless you ants.

    Blants.
  • jaybo1001, on 01/17/2008, -1/+20Only at the end. They were checking the air vents and flagging them with the ants all over..
  • Fatcheeseguy, on 01/17/2008, -1/+20Reminds me of Pikmin.
  • SirSid, on 05/27/2009, -0/+18Full Documentry here I believe
    http://openflv.com/watch?v=MTIxMzMy&p=0
  • badjoke, on 01/17/2008, -1/+19Dugg for saying more than the norm.
  • Fracture98, on 01/17/2008, -0/+17No, but they have a network of tubes. Won't be long now.
  • tyywebb, on 01/17/2008, -0/+17Interesting to see what the digg superorganism thinks of this video.
  • PathDaemon, on 01/17/2008, -0/+16Dude: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sim_Ant
    It's a *****' awesome game. Even has a campaign mode where you take over some dude's house.
  • JAGUART, on 01/17/2008, -7/+23I'm from Buenos Aires, and I say kill 'em all!
  • TripleAStacked, on 01/17/2008, -2/+18how come the ants didn't bite them............
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