Broken up and dead ants in setup

[AntLoverSLO]

Hello everyone!
I'm posting here because in the last few days I've started seeing a small pile of dead ants and what I think are pieces of dismembered ants (but I am not 100% sure on this one tho, since I do feed my ants other small insects and it could be parts of them). I know that ants will carry their dead onto a single pile, but I didn't know they would dismember them.

Some important information:

• I am keeping a two year-old colony of Lasius Niger.
• I keep them in an open-top clear-plastic container, half-filled with dirt, so that they can create their own burrows.
• I feed them 1-2 a week, usually with honey, fruit or small insects, as well as water their setup when I see the dirt is dry.
• I don't know how many workers there are in the colony, but there always seem to be at least 10 workers running about, with higher numbers when I feed them.
• I think that the queen is still alive, asI haven't seen her dead body (or pieces of her) beeing dumped anywhere.

These are my questions/concerns:

1. I have read that the life expectancy of Lasius Niger workers is about 4 years, so why are there already piles of dead ants popping up just after 2 years? (One thing of note here is that their numbers don't seem to be falling, but instead rising, as I am seeing more and more workers outside.)
2. Why are most of the ants dismembered into small pieces? As I stated at the beginnig, these could be pieces of insects that I feed them, but I doubt it, as there are too many, they are all black and most of the eaten insects are usually dumped in large pieces.

I might just be overreacting and this could just be normal ant behaviour, but I have an odd feeling about all this.

I'd appreciate any help that you guys can give me, as I am still quite new to ant keeping.
Thank you all for reading and hopefully helping me with this issue!

[antperson24]

Hello everyone!
I'm posting here because in the last few days I've started seeing a small pile of dead ants and what I think are pieces of dismembered ants (but I am not 100% sure on this one tho, since I do feed my ants other small insects and it could be parts of them). I know that ants will carry their dead onto a single pile, but I didn't know they would dismember them.

Some important information:

• I am keeping a two year-old colony of Lasius Niger.
• I keep them in an open-top clear-plastic container, half-filled with dirt, so that they can create their own burrows.
• I feed them 1-2 a week, usually with honey, fruit or small insects, as well as water their setup when I see the dirt is dry.
• I don't know how many workers there are in the colony, but there always seem to be at least 10 workers running about, with higher numbers when I feed them.
• I think that the queen is still alive, asI haven't seen her dead body (or pieces of her) beeing dumped anywhere.

These are my questions/concerns:

1. I have read that the life expectancy of Lasius Niger workers is about 4 years, so why are there already piles of dead ants popping up just after 2 years? (One thing of note here is that their numbers don't seem to be falling, but instead rising, as I am seeing more and more workers outside.)
2. Why are most of the ants dismembered into small pieces? As I stated at the beginnig, these could be pieces of insects that I feed them, but I doubt it, as there are too many, they are all black and most of the eaten insects are usually dumped in large pieces.

I might just be overreacting and this could just be normal ant behaviour, but I have an odd feeling about all this.

I'd appreciate any help that you guys can give me, as I am still quite new to ant keeping.
Thank you all for reading and hopefully helping me with this issue!

It is probably normal. Sometimes if ants still have valuable nutrients in their social stomachs other ants will eat parts of them. I don't think you need to be worried, just keep an eye on it.