When I discovered ‘my first nest’ at the Dollemansweg site I I was wondered about the ant road structure around  the two largest nest in the middle of the super colony. The map below show nest 1 and 2, each about 3 meters wide and 0,8 high. They were built with just five meters distance. Mapping of the paths around the nests learned nest a had connections in all directions, but nest b was only connected with nest b by a huge meters wide road connection. I asked myself several questions. On other sites the same situations were found around groups of very large nests.

1. Why is nest b completely depending on nest a?
2. Why does nest b not have connections trough area 3, only via nest a?
3. Way doe ants from nest a not walk the shortest route to area 3, but use something like a ring road to pass nest b?

This map does show a less complex map. Two nests at a distance of 30 meters are connected with two small roads. The traffic is so intense that the ants cannot walk faster: a traffic jam! The solution the ants have is simple: by creating an alternative route, parallel to the original road. On each road the alts walk in a different direction like a two or four lane highway.

1. But how do ants create a two lane road, while they follow the trail left by other ants from the colony, which is almost always the fastest and most efficient?

The weather conditions have effect on these roads. 20 degrees seems to be the lowest temperature Formica rufa needs to expand the road network over distances more than 70 meters. More about ants and weather

	Dollemansweg
	Wiebche
	Zaarderheiken (Floriadebos)
	Ravensheide
	Maldens Vlak