Summary
Florida carpenter ants appear to treat their nestmates with wound cleaning or removal of a limb. The ants could even be tailoring the course of treatment depending on the type of injury. The preferred path of wound care may be related to the risk of infection from the wound site.
The speed at which the ants can amputate a leg makes a difference. An ant-assisted amputation takes at least 40 minutes. The team is now running similar experiments in other Camponotus species. They hope to further explore our understanding of pain in ant societies.
