Ants Instinctively Seek Out Natural Medicines

Healthy ants wanted nothing to do with free-radical-rich foodstuff, but ants exposed to a pathogenic fungus sought it out, which upped their odds of survival.

We humans take medicine when we're sick. As do our primate cousins. Chimps, for example, snack on a bitter African shrub to combat intestinal worms. But the habit extends even to invertebrates. Take fruit flies—which sip alcohol to ward off parasitic wasps. Or wood ants, which line their nests with antifungal, antibacterial tree sap. Now researchers in Finland report that ants there that have encountered a pathogenic fungus appear to fight the infection by eating foods high in free radicals. Those are molecules with a talent for causing cell damage, in this case, to the cells of the fungus. That's according to a study in the journal Evolution. [Nick Bos et al, Ants medicate to fight disease]