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Twitter users uncover shocking truth behind ants covering their dead in Trix cereal

A Twitter user explained how his kid decided to throw a handful of Trix cereal into his pet ants' habitat as a treat but was shocked by their response

A Twitter user amused his followers by posting about his son’s ant farm and some scientific experiments that went wrong. A Twitter user called OctopusCaveman shared a strange riddle after observing peculiar behavior in the ants on his son's ant farm. He explained how his 5-year-old kid decided to throw a handful of Trix cereal into his pets' habitat as a treat but was shocked by their response. Instead of chowing down on the sweet cereal, they enacted some sort of bizarre ant funeral that confused the family. 

He wrote, "My son put some Trix in his ant farm. Instead of eating them, the ants dug up all of the dead ants on the farm and piled them on top of the Trix. Not sure what that means but I’m not eating Trix anymore. When I die, bury me in Trix so the bugs don't eat me. In case anyone was curious, we gave them a Mcdonald's fry tonight and it went right on the death pile." He also posted a picture of the Trix ant graveyard. As might be expected, the internet loves a good mystery, and OctopusCaveman's tweet provided the ideal setting for ant experts to share their extensive knowledge of the eusocial insects.

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One such user presented an interesting theory based on an experiment they once came across. It reads, "I read about a scientific experiment where some researchers put the pheromone that smells like death on ants to observe their behavior. The smelly ant would be taken by their peers to the corpse heap or they would walk there themselves and just sit, convinced they had died.” Other Twitter users shared similar startling observations they've had about ants.

One user wrote,  "If you leave butter outside, it will be covered in ants in minutes. If you leave margarine outside, they won’t touch it.” "I've been disturbed since I discovered ants milking their aphid herd out in my garden. A whole farm right under my nose,” another added.

Someone wrote, "When I was a kid we used to put different ants together in our 'gladiator pit' to see which ant was the strongest. The little regular ants are actually the most aggressive, two of them ripped the legs off a bull-ant and then carried it home."

"They did this with every ant/insect we could find. They are absolute weapons the little ones. Also for context, I live in Australia so the other ants/bugs were mad scary. I say all that to say, start the new account dedicated to Ant Farm content, please. You've awoken my god complex," another user remarked.

However, one Twitter user appears to solve the mystery of the Trix ant graveyard, writing, "I found the actual reason... apparently oleic acid is the substance that makes ants aware of death and makes them pick up the dead bodies... turns out Trix are full of canola and sunflower oil which is 61% and 20-80% oleic acid respectively."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.