How Do Ants Climb Walls

How do ants climb walls?A tale as old as time; you wake up in the morning, open your curtains and there’s a small black creature scurrying around on the glass. You panic, rush to Google and start typing (strangely, ants also have a strange fascination with keyboards) “how do ants climb walls?” A long list of answers appear: some websites say rub salt on your window sill. Other websites say pour vinegar onto them (ewww). Some say put air freshener down and yet other websites recommend you break the little bugger’s legs. But how do ants walk along flat surfaces like ceilings if their legs don’t work that way? Let’s find out how these little critters defy gravity… I’ve been watching ants crawl up and down the walls of my home for as long as I can remember. It’s become one of those weird things that you do. You seem to forget why but it can be very entertaining. It is kind of a game, putting your brain to work but having a good time doing it. There is probably no better way to occupy yourself after a long day at work than to watch the antics of these little critters.

How Do Ants Climb Walls

Ants are tiny, but they can do some pretty big things.

They can make their way up a wall in a matter of seconds. They can build bridges that span hundreds of feet and scale heights that would make most people dizzy. They can even lift objects dozens of times their own weight.

So how do ants climb walls? And what makes it possible for them to do so well? It turns out that the secret behind ant climbing is all about physics—and we’re going to reveal it to you here!

The first thing you need to know is that ants have super strong legs, which means they can grip onto almost anything. Their legs have tiny hairs on them called setae (singular: seta) that help them stick to surfaces like glue. They also have sticky pads on their feet called tarsi, which help them grip even better than their setae do alone. Ants don’t climb walls.

They crawl up them. And they do it because they have to, not because they want to.

Ants are small, so they need to find a way to get up high in order to reach the food and water they need. And since they’re too small to jump and too light to climb like other animals, the only way for them to reach their destination is by using their legs as hands and feet, gripping onto the surface of whatever they want access to and pulling themselves up step-by-step until they’ve reached their goal.

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