[mariusz79]

RTFA

[sctb]

No matter what the original commenter has said, the guidelines ask you not to do this:

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[pavel_lishin]

Ah, so it is 100% maintained by new ants falling through every year. I had no idea individual ants could live for over a year!

[Zitrax]

Workers live from 1 to 3 years. A queen ant can live for up to 30 years! I guess less down in that environment though.

[pavel_lishin]

That's incredible. I always thought it would be on the order of weeks for a worker, and maybe a few years for a queen.

I feel extra bad for killing these little guys as a kid.

[ajuc]

Well they have to survive the winter somehow, so it must be at least several months.

[noobermin]

Implying that the rate of falling ants is quite substantial enough to overcome the rate of death.