Why are there ants?

Answer 1

Ants evolved many millions of years ago. In fact, the first ant fossils are from the late Cretaceous (by the end of the Dinosaur era), some 65 million years ago.

Ants provide many benefits to the ecosystem. Many ants are scavengers, or omnivores. That means that they can eat many types of food, such as dead or live insects, nectar from plants, or honeydew, which are little sugary droplets coming out of aphids. If things were not eaten by other things they would hang around a lot longer.

Other ants are herbivores, which means that they only eat plants, such as the leaf-cutter ants. Leaf cutter ants cut leaves from plants and take them to the nest. Inside the nest the leaves are chopped into smaller pieces by small ants, and put into fungus gardens. In these gardens lives a fungus that digests the leaves the ants bring into the nest. The ants then eat small "fruits", called fruiting bodies, that are produced by the fungus. The fungus can only live in ant nests, and nests cannot live without their fungus. This is called mutualism.

Other ants are predators, meaning that they only hunt live insects.

Answer 2

The only reason I've come across that ants gather around urine is that it indicates high blood sugar. If ants are gathering around your urine, or a pet's urine, it would be a good idea to get to the Dr to get checked for Diabetes.

Answer 3

Ants don't actually urinate. They don't have a bladder or urethra. They do a the equivalent of kidneys and get rid of waste through their digestive tract.

Answer 4

Spontaneous combustion.