The final goal of our research is to converse with ants. Ants have long been thought to engage in detailed communication using chemical substances such as pheromones. However, our researchis revealing that acoustic signals are also important toos of communication.We conducte detailed analyses of organs such as “ears” and “sound-producing organs”. It will be able to control the behavior of ants like leaf-cutting ants, which are significant damage against human society.

We have been collaborating with various stakeholders such as the Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, and the Ministry of the Environment to control invasive alien ant species such as the red imported fire ant, the yellow crazy ant, and Argentine ant. In Okayama Prefcture, there have been reported of the little fire ant (Wasmannia auropunctata) at Mizushima Port, and we will continue to control and manage these ants.

By using silk produced by silworms, which domesticated in China 6,000 years ago, and the silks spun by black Japanese weaver ant in Okinawa, we conduct research to create new fabric sheets. We hope that as this research progresses, the black Japanese weaver ant can be a symbolic relationship with humans as the fourth demesticated insect.