So i was feeding some of the wild Pheidole colonies in my backyard pieces of raw macadamia nuts, and they loved it, with the majors coming out to crush it up.
And small crumbs of dark chocolate.
Then I started clipping my finger nails and toe nails nearby, there is a ledge and pavement area I sit on.
There is one nest on the edge of this, and constant trail of Iridomyrmex Bicknelli workers or some type crazy black ants, all the time.
The next thing I see is one of those medium sized black ant workers (Iridomyrmex Bicknelli?) worker dragging away one of my clippings.
I thought WTF.
So I dropped one on the Pheidole nets opening and they also bunched around it and dragged it back to their nest.
I also tried another nest further away, and they also dragged it back to their nest.
Then a few more Iridomyrmex Bicknelli workers came by and carted off one nail clipping each.
Pheidole foragers soon found all my clippings and started to drag them all back to the nest!
They probably know the nails are organic, but there must be some secret sauce in my clippings?
I doubt they will be able to break the nails up, they are pretty thick and tough.
So what are they using it for? eating it?