I Am the Swarm

During this period of time, the brood has received a large amount of high-quality protein supplements and is fully working. Schedule tasks to the full every day without affecting yourself.

Except for a small amount of soldier ants that filled the vacancies of the war dead, the eggs produced are all worker ants' eggs.

This war, in which the two sides dispatched a total force of more than 10,000 troops, made Rowan understand the combination of troops in the insect nest in the future.

Under his command beyond the ants who don't know how many levels, the battlefield is mostly confined to narrow areas, such as underground passages, such as the entrance of ant nests.

This resulted in the fact that the two sides actually did not have many soldiers in contact at the same time. Except for the encirclement at the entrance of the ant nest, the number of soldier ants needed was larger, and other places did not need too many soldier ants.

These food-consuming machines that do nothing but fight. If there are too many hatched during the war, once the war is over, there will be too many left. To reduce food loss, they can only be recycled.

So when only a few hundred ants are enough to deal with the current situation, Rowan will not hatch more soldier ants rashly.

Compared with soldier ants, the role of worker ants is more comprehensive and diverse.

First of all, it serves as an auxiliary protection for the joints and backs of soldier ants during wartime.

After the contact battle, you can also bite and pull the enemy unit, fix it, and wait for the soldier ants to come and execute it.

When facing a large-scale enemy army, you can also spray formic acid solution to blind the opponent.

After the battle, it can also act as a transport team, clean up the battlefield, and collect spoils.

You can also take care of the larvae and clean the nests at ordinary times.

There is also the green worm farm that is about to be taken over, raising green worms and collecting green worm cakes. These tasks require a large number of worker ants.

So for the current nest, the more worker ants, the better.

A few months later, a Milky Way surged down on the cliff, the water splashed majesticly, and the boiling water mist splashed, reflecting the dazzling brilliance.

A lake is formed under the waterfall, which is sparkling and ripples under the breeze. Seen from above, the original perfect disc-shaped lake is slightly flawed, and a gap is split along the edge of the disc, forming a small river that winds away.

The lakes and streams are lush and full of life.

At this time, hundreds of meters away from the shore of the lake, there is a tall tree, tens of meters high, with a huge canopy covering the sky and the sun.

On its dark brown trunk, there was a black beetle the size of a plate lying on it, as if a piece of dog skin plaster had been pasted on it, affecting the harmony and beauty of the whole.

This is Rowan overlooking his territory.

During this period of time, the insect nest has successively attacked seven ant nests in the surrounding area, and its sphere of influence has expanded to a radius of more than 300 meters. Although it seems small, it is already a huge territory for ants who are generally not as big as a fingernail.

Before, this territory had fully supported seven ant nests with a population of more than five thousand.

The insect nest has taken over such a large area, and with the continuous blood transfusion of more than 20 other ant nests, the number of insect populations has more than doubled to more than 20,000.

Among them, the number of soldier ants is just over a thousand, and there are also various special arms with a number of only a few hundred, such as spy bugs and big-eyed scout bugs. In addition, all of them are worker ants, and the ratio of those with digging legs to those without digging legs is three to seven.

Adding more gene segments, Rowan found, grew bugs with specialized organ tissues. Not only is the cost of insect eggs a little higher, but even the usual consumption is a little higher.

Although it is insignificant from the perspective of a single increase, if the number increases, the additional consumption will be considerable over time.

Therefore, according to calculations, Rowan chose the ratio of 30 to 70.

Worker ants with digging legs are mainly responsible for the maintenance of underground passages and the removal of food from the rest of the nest.

The worker ants without digging feet are in charge of the new industry of the nest - raising green translucent worms. Rowan gave them the monumental name, Aphids.

There are more than 15,000 worker ants in 70% of the nests. They lack digging feet and their bodies are lighter, which is just right for climbing trees.

Every day, these worker ants will run around on various vegetation in the territory. The aphid family, which was not too prosperous at first, has been greatly supported.

Originally, these translucent green bugs had very poor mobility. After birth, they would basically not move their nests unless they had eaten all the leaves under their feet.

But under the guidance of Rowan, the worker ants use their jaws to pick up these small insects, help them migrate to new vegetation, and help them to spread branches and leaves.

After these worms suck the branches and leaves, the worker ants will come forward to massage them to help them excrete translucent water droplets.

The worker ants will devour these droplets, except some for themselves. They can also spit out droplets of water to feed other companions.

After the companions are full, they will spit out the excess water drops in a special place to dry.

After a period of drying, the water in the water droplets evaporates, leaving behind light yellow crystals. The taste is sweet and delicious, it is a rare sweet food, and it is very easy to store.

However, Luo Wen, who knows how they are made, will not eat these things, and don't ask him how he knows their taste.

However, aphids are a pest to vegetation. While their families are gradually prospering, the leaves of the vegetation in the territory are also plagued.

Also, these aphids reproduce quite quickly. With the help of worker ants, the number grows exponentially.

The branches and leaves of many plants were eaten clean, and they gradually withered without sufficient photosynthesis.

Rowan discovered this change in time, and he knew that it would not take long for the vegetation in the territory to be gnawed away.

His previous approach was a bit of a waste of time.

However, due to his previous human origin, he naturally had some unique talents for planting, and he had a brilliant idea on a whim.

He discovered before that ants also excrete, but some worker ants will clean up the excrement in the nest every day and find a special place to pile it up.

And if there are plants near these storage points, they will grow more luxuriantly.

Luo Wen understood that this was probably fertilization, and it was biological fertilizer.

It's a pity that the excrement of ants is too little, even if the amount of tens of thousands of ants is not much in a day, it cannot provide fertilizer for too many plants.

Luo Wen thought for a long time, and guessed that the lack of excretion was probably due to the ants. Now most of the food is water droplets excreted by aphids. It's no wonder there are so few people who eat this kind of food.

Does that mean eating more solid food will increase the production of bio-fertilizer?

It is said that mental patients have wide-ranging thinking. When thinking of solid food, Rowan immediately thought of the only big experience he had after he became a bug.

Isn't this all ready-made solid food everywhere?