Social Insects and pandemics

August 7, 2020 10:30pm IST

   Pandemic, a word which we all are familiar with now. Pandemics have happened as early as 3000 BC (of which we have a record of). Humans know how to prevent and treat diseases. We have a vast knowledge of many diseases, and we are continually trying to learn more. But what about insects? How do they prevent such diseases, especially those who live in colonies like ants and bees? Just think about a disease which spreads fast and can lead to the death of infected individuals (thinking of COVID-19 lol). What would happen to colonies of social insects if such disease spread? Some colonies can be much more populous than the most populous city in the world, Tokyo. Then how do these little insects survive such pandemics?

Well, one will be amazed to know that these social insects have a collection of social behaviours to fight diseases, which is referred to as social immunity. It is becoming a topic of research as it could help humans learn to fight pandemics better and create a more pandemic-resilient society. Let's take a look into some examples of such behaviours.

A species of ants (A. custodiens) implement a form of quarantine where ants that were exposed to infection aren't allowed to enter, or one can say the infected ones don't enter the chambers of the queen and the young ones. They also usually remain confined to the chambers near the exit. They also implement more frequent and intense allogrooming where nestmates clean and disinfect the potentially exposed individuals.

Another example is of sugar ants (C. fulvopilosus) who use formic acid as a potent antimicrobial substance. Some ants harvest antimicrobial tree resins and spread them around their nests which is called collective medication. Social insects are also well known for keeping their colonies clean. Workers collect the waste and dead bodies outside the nest.

Seeing ant's communication from one colony to another is very rare. This also prevents epidemics from becoming pandemics. In our case, we are connected to every part of the world, making it easier for diseases to travel from country to country.

So, we can see that social insects have their own measures to prevent pandemics which are somewhat similar to us and also slightly different.