Excavation Has Gone Nuclear: 24 g Shifted

Almost 24 g of material, excavated by ants. © Eugene Brennan

The ants have been excavating tunnels under the floor of my utility room for the last few years. This occurs during the summer. It would be a lot of hassle blocking up the holes because the tunnel entrance is behind a door jamb. Anyway, sorting this problem is low down on my ever-growing-longer list of chores. There was a huge amount of activity overnight, taking advantage of the dry weather. Construction has carried on into the daylight hours, which is unusual. Are there ant "weather forecasters" that give the go ahead for mass mobilisation of construction workers like what happened on D-Day? I weighed the material excavated in the last couple of days on my drug dealer scales (or so it was called by members of an electronic forum I'm a member of. Disclaimer: I'm not a drug dealer) and it's almost 24 g (one ounce = 28.35 g) . According to a BBC article, an ant weighs 1 to 5 mg. However they can also lift 20 to 50 times their own weight, depending on species. The material they were excavating under my floor was small soil/sand particles probably equalling the weight of an ant, so I guess lots of ant-hours of backwards and forward movement was required, rather than Herculean lifting skills.

Sand and  soil excavated by ants. © Eugene Brennan