Department of Biology

Ants are the janitors of the forest, cleaning up dead stuff and making way for new life. They sometimes help spread seeds to grow new plants, too. When ants build tunnels in the soil, they aerate it and recirculate nutrients essential for plant growth. Ants are also social animals, notes Olav Rueppell, PhD, a biology professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. “Social insects such as honey bees, wasps, ants, and termites not only provide many essential services by pollinating what we eat, preying on pests, and decomposing what we throw away, but also show us the power of cooperation and altruism,” he explains. Learn the truth about these 27 “facts” you have about animals that you have all wrong.