[Carolyn (OP)]

Do ants & other animals know when bad weather is approaching.  If so, how?

[neilep]

Do ants & other animals know when bad weather is approaching.  If so, how?

They watch the weather forecast !!......like...duhhh !!

*sheesh.....girlies !!*

[Carolyn (OP)]

*Duh*  Now why didn't I think of that? []

[paul.fr]

Ants are supposed to build walls around their nests to prepare for heavy rain, the Aborigines also observed that meat ants cover their nests with tiny bits of quartz when a bushfire is coming. the quartz is supposed to reflect the heat and protects the nest.

Not really weather related, but many animals can "sense danger". Such as a forest fire and so on.

[Carolyn (OP)]

Thanks Paul. 

Every year about this time, we have problems with ants in the house.  I've always been told that they're moving to higher ground because of impending rain.  The ant infestations are usually worse during the years that we've had hurricanes, tropical storms, and excessive rain.  This year is the worst infestation of them that I remember seeing.  Everyone in our town is having the same problem with them.

So is the moving to higher ground theory true or just coincidence?

[dkv]

Ants have leaders .And it is the decision of the leader to seek higher ground.
They may or may not be correct always.(as the weather is unpredictable)
But as the season comes they know what to do to survive due to bilogical clock developed due to evolution. They must be migrating before the rains and not during the rains ... Am I correct?
 

[Carolyn (OP)]

Ants have leaders .And it is the decision of the leader to seek higher ground.
They may or may not be correct always.(as the weather is unpredictable)
But as the season comes they know what to do to survive due to bilogical clock developed due to evolution. They must be migrating before the rains and not during the rains ... Am I correct?
 

You are correct.

[dkv]

Every year about this time, we have problems with ants in the house.  I've always been told that they're moving to higher ground because of impending rain.  The ant infestations are usually worse during the years that we've had hurricanes, tropical storms, and excessive rain.  This year is the worst infestation of them that I remember seeing.  Everyone in our town is having the same problem with them.

Are hurricanes , tropical storms and rains are seasonal where you live?
If not then the biological clock will not work.

[another_someone]

Ants will no doubt be very sensitive to the humidity in the soil (both directly, in changes in the texture of the soil, but also I suspect in sensing differences in soil bacterial growth due to humidity).

I doubt that most ants actually would seek higher ground before rain, since most (but not all) ants will have quite a bit of effort invested in their communal nests, and I cannot see them deserting that in all but the most extreme cases (in many species of ants, I would imagine that to leave the nest before a new queen is ready to start a new colony would simply lead to the death of the colony).  Certainly, it is quite possible that ants will involve themselves if reinforcing the nest before a rain, or simply foraging to extra supplies at that time.