Should we respect the ants?

I think ants are utterly awesome, for the following reasons

*They have a complex division of labour (workers, soldiers, queens)

*They practice agriculture (the leafcutter ants chop up leaves into a mulch which then grows a fungus that they eat)

*They domesticate animals (some ant species treat the mealybug like cows, they protect them from predators and move them about to the best pastures, and in return they eat their nectar)

*They have technology (they build their nests to incorporate air conditioning ducts)

*They have a healthcare system (they gather tree resin for its antibiotic properties, and have particular ants whose job is to remove parasites and bad things from the nest)

*They have waste management (they remove their dead and put them in graveyards, along with other waste)

*They practice warfare (the ants have co-ordinated attacks on other colonies to plunder their larvae for food)

*They have a sophisticated ant internet (using their pheromones, they co-ordinate construction, battles, good gathering)

*They control their own reproduction (if there is an attack on the nest, the pheromone releases will tell the brood-workers to create more soldiers)

For these reasons, I think they are a most excellent species.

However, their society is also very hierarchical and (this occurs in bees and wasps so I would assume it also occurs in ants as hive insects) practises eugenics, only the queen and males are allowed to breed - the rest are prevented from becoming fertile.

I think ants are utterly awesome, for the following reasons

*They have a complex division of labour (workers, soldiers, queens)

*They practice agriculture (the leafcutter ants chop up leaves into a mulch which then grows a fungus that they eat)

*They domesticate animals (some ant species treat the mealybug like cows, they protect them from predators and move them about to the best pastures, and in return they eat their nectar)

*They have technology (they build their nests to incorporate air conditioning ducts)

*They have a healthcare system (they gather tree resin for its antibiotic properties, and have particular ants whose job is to remove parasites and bad things from the nest)

*They have waste management (they remove their dead and put them in graveyards, along with other waste)

*They practice warfare (the ants have co-ordinated attacks on other colonies to plunder their larvae for food)

*They have a sophisticated ant internet (using their pheromones, they co-ordinate construction, battles, food gathering)

*They control their own reproduction (if there is an attack on the nest, the pheromone releases will tell the brood-workers to create more soldiers)

For these reasons, I think they are a most excellent species.

wow, that's actually pretty impressive - I think we underestimate ants for being so small, but if they were cats or dogs for example we'd probably have an entirely different perspective

God's work is pretty amazing.

God's work is pretty amazing.

Definitely I just watched a documentary about the leaf cutter ants, I can't get over how amazing their underground fungus gardens are. They even cultivate particular bacteria that produces antibiotics to control strains of mould that would threaten their precious fungus

...

(by the way) sorry I mean "if they were just as big as cats and dogs", if my message didn't make sense because we usually guess that insects aren't intelligent beings because we don't actually get to see (very easily) what they do because it's on such a small level

Ants are awesome, but don't discount termites also. They do lots of the things you mention and also are capable of building absolutely huge structures (10ft is pretty normal as I understand it) in such a way so that the internal climate is regular despite the changing position of the burning hot sun through the day.