As hospitals around the world struggle with dangerous drug-resistant infections, scientists are increasingly looking to nature for solutions.
Surprisingly, one promising source may be crawling right beneath our feet. New research suggests that ants have mastered the use of antibiotics in ways humans are only beginning to understand.
A study led by Clint Penick, an assistant professor of entomology at Auburn University, shows that ants have been using powerful antimicrobial compounds for tens of millions of years—without triggering the widespread resistance problems that plague modern medicine.
The findings raise the possibility that ants could teach humans how to use antibiotics more effectively and sustainably.
Humans have relied on antibiotics for less than a century, yet many bacteria and fungi have already evolved resistance, giving rise to so-called superbugs.
Ants, by contrast, live in dense colonies that should be perfect breeding grounds for disease.
Yet infections rarely wipe them out. Penick and his team wanted to understand how ants manage this feat over such long evolutionary timescales.
The researchers focused on just six ant species commonly found in the southeastern United States, including species people encounter in their backyards and on college campuses. Some of the most potent antimicrobial effects, they found, came from ants that are usually considered pests—such as fire ants.
The study, published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, tested two main ideas.
First, the team asked whether ants produce more than one type of antibiotic compound. In human medicine, doctors often switch drugs when one stops working. The researchers found that ants appear to do something similar.
By extracting ant chemicals using different solvents, the team showed that ants produce multiple classes of antimicrobial compounds.
In simple terms, ants seem to keep a varied “medicine cabinet,” allowing them to respond flexibly when a pathogen isn’t affected by one chemical.
The second idea explored whether ants use targeted antibiotics rather than broad-spectrum ones. This is a major goal in human medicine today. Broad antibiotics kill not only harmful microbes but also beneficial ones, increasing the chances that resistance genes will spread.
The results suggest that ants are highly selective. Some ant compounds target fungi, others specifically attack gram-negative bacteria, and still others act against gram-positive bacteria. This kind of precision reduces collateral damage and may explain why resistance has not spiraled out of control in ant societies.
One unexpected and striking result emerged along the way. Nearly all the ant species tested were effective at killing Candida auris, an emerging fungal superbug that has caused serious outbreaks in hospitals worldwide and is notoriously difficult to treat. Although this was not the main focus of the study, it highlights the medical potential of ant-derived compounds.
The research team included graduate students from Auburn University and Kennesaw State University, and the work is only a first step. The next phase will involve identifying the exact chemical compounds ants are producing and learning how they deploy them so effectively.
Penick believes the implications could be far-reaching. Ants represent a vast and largely untapped source of antimicrobial strategies—and possibly new drugs.
By learning from these tiny insects, humans may find better ways to fight today’s most dangerous infections and avoid repeating the mistakes that led to antibiotic resistance in the first place.
