Interesting. Ants communicate by smell (essentially), so much so that a live ant which is coated in the "I'm dead" compound will be repeatedly carried to the dead pile regardless of how many times that ant walks away from it.
So, something in Trix must include a compound that those ants identify as "Dead pile goes here", and everyone thought someone else moved the dead pile lol
183
ricecake @sh.itjust.works - 11mon
Ants use oleic acid to identify other ants as dead, which is also commonly found is plants, although usually not in any notable concentration until we press the plant for oil. Trix use canola oil which contains a lot of oleic acid (compared to other oils, it's not objectively a lot). I wonder if something in the cooking process or combination with one of the other colors or flavors makes it enough to mess them up.
Skimming a research article it looks like oleic acid isn't what they use to mark the burial pile, just what goes in the pile.
125
Superb - 11mon
Maybe they decided the trix was dead but it was too big to move to the pile, so they moved the pile
53
MeaanBeaan @lemmy.world - 11mon
Alternate tinfoil hat theory: there's dead ants in our Trix.
32
smitten - 11mon
Well I’m sure there’s at least a couple..
15
Rhaedas - 11mon
That's a decent scientific hypothesis.
But we all know it's a ritual to open up dimensional gates.
62
DudeImMacGyver - 11mon
Trix: Tastes like dead ants!
27
DaddleDew @lemmy.world - 11mon
This is the ant equivalent of Monty Python's "Bring out your dead" skit
The sucromancers entertain the idea they control life and death but they do not know the forces which guide the ether of souls. Their craft is luring the young with succulent sugars impossible to ignore. But Lo! Trix are beyond them. Foolish formics know not what to make of the deep sweets, the True Sugar.
Jhogenbaum in 196
Trix are for ... ancient rituals
Interesting. Ants communicate by smell (essentially), so much so that a live ant which is coated in the "I'm dead" compound will be repeatedly carried to the dead pile regardless of how many times that ant walks away from it.
So, something in Trix must include a compound that those ants identify as "Dead pile goes here", and everyone thought someone else moved the dead pile lol
Ants use oleic acid to identify other ants as dead, which is also commonly found is plants, although usually not in any notable concentration until we press the plant for oil. Trix use canola oil which contains a lot of oleic acid (compared to other oils, it's not objectively a lot). I wonder if something in the cooking process or combination with one of the other colors or flavors makes it enough to mess them up.
Skimming a research article it looks like oleic acid isn't what they use to mark the burial pile, just what goes in the pile.
Maybe they decided the trix was dead but it was too big to move to the pile, so they moved the pile
Alternate tinfoil hat theory: there's dead ants in our Trix.
Well I’m sure there’s at least a couple..
That's a decent scientific hypothesis.
But we all know it's a ritual to open up dimensional gates.
Trix: Tastes like dead ants!
This is the ant equivalent of Monty Python's "Bring out your dead" skit
https://youtu.be/4UPDUpjkHg0 "You gotta tell 'em. Trix is ants!"
Even ants know Trix are for kids
The sucromancers entertain the idea they control life and death but they do not know the forces which guide the ether of souls. Their craft is luring the young with succulent sugars impossible to ignore. But Lo! Trix are beyond them. Foolish formics know not what to make of the deep sweets, the True Sugar.
What does that mean? Ant rituals maybe.
They are summoning the rabbit
Maybe it's a funeral altar.
Trix are for dead kids I guess.