Why ants walk in a straight line / it turned out to be so

One summer morning, when I woke up I noticed a string of lines on the wall of my bedroom. The line went from the ceiling — straight to the wall behind my bed — and then disappeared just under it.

When I looked I saw one of them. The bar is moving. It was a small red ant that came up to the line. Soon, one after the other, finally turned into a line of ants marching on the wall.

I noticed that as I walked through the line, the ants were cleaning up the paint from the walls beneath them and, in the process, creating a path. They walk in a straight line for a good reason.

Ants are social insects. They live in large groups and live a very organized social life. Red ants nest within the walls of our houses. They usually travel long distances in search of food. Without the help of any map or navigation, they must rely on other mechanisms to find the way around them.

When ants walk, they leave a scent that is the way they use to find their nests, just as the children in the fairy tale Adventures in the Jungle Leave Pebbles to find their way home from the jungle. The smell left behind by ants is called pheromones. Ants walk on a line because they follow the scent left by the leader.

If you want to test this fact, use an eraser to wipe off the path the ants are walking. Ants will stop where you use the eraser to remove the smell. There is no direction, they move in all directions.

So the next time you see an ant crawling on the ground in a panic, you know what it's looking for.