Walking through the woods and the fields you maybe see them walking: ants. It can be a single ant, but also ants walking the same route. These ant-roads can be several meters wide or just some centimeters. The roads start in the ant nest and go to a tree, another nest or some kind of food source like a dead animal.

Many ants that create roads are from the Formicinae sub-family. This family contains the Lasius and the Formica Genus. Both are very common in the Dutch landscape. Lasius niger for example creates short connections between nest entrances in the pavement. Lasius fuliginosus, who live in hollow trees create nice roads to a single food source. And when they are finished they make a new road to a new source. These roads can be 50 or 60 meters long.

But the best road builders are Formica rufa and Formica polyctena. They build realy large connections between trees or other ant nests, sometimes with trees to cross small stream. These roads stand for many years and can be compared with ancient Roman roads. Here you see some maps of these road structures. Sometimes these roads are so old that they are almost tunnels, covered with lichens and moss, in a straight line from nest to destination. So the ants are protected against weather and enemies. Realy great to see them in Boswachterij Odoorn, just minutes from the sheep fold.