Illness and Ants

[shaky33]

Ok, this may seem like a dumb question but here we go.

Can ants contract human illnesses? Such as the flu and stuff like that.

Like other that being injected with like ebola or something. Could an ant catch a cold from a human??

Food for thought. Stupid food. Proably quite obviously food too. Just wondering.

[dinoman9877]

Very rarely do diseases cross species, especially such vastly different ones. It's not like mosquitoes injecting malaria. That evolved from humans to affect humans, mosquitoes just carry it when they drink infected blood, but are unaffected themselves.

Now I wouldn't go spreading tons of germs to your little insectoid ladies. Any contamination like saliva or mucus would, not only be gross, but could be a potential building block for mold or fungus, or other more harmful bacteria. So be extra diligent in sterilizing your hands before examining your ants, and maybe find something to cover your nose and mouth with just in case.

[Batspiderfish]

It could happen, theoretically, although our bodies are so hugely different that the odds of an infectious agent being able to reproduce in both of us are astronomical or nonexistent. It's hard enough for viruses to evolve transmission between unrelated, warm-blooded, vertebrate/chordate animals.

[shaky33]

Very rarely do diseases cross species, especially such vastly different ones. It's not like mosquitoes injecting malaria. That evolved from humans to affect humans, mosquitoes just carry it when they drink infected blood, but are unaffected themselves.

Now I wouldn't go spreading tons of germs to your little insectoid ladies. Any contamination like saliva or mucus would, not only be gross, but could be a potential building block for mold or fungus, or other more harmful bacteria. So be extra diligent in sterilizing your hands before examining your ants, and maybe find something to cover your nose and mouth with just in case.

No, I will definately not.

It was just some food for thought that I was unsure about.

[Chewyrockafeller]

I think a viral transfer is more impossible rather that a risk. Bacteria, well it grows everywhere and is always a risk. I did a quick search and never came across any virus that has crossed the Insecta - Mammalia class, actually nothing that crossed the class level period. Most viruses that affect humans have no affect or cannot affect other hosts. Humans and ants don't usually come into contact with each other, unlike blood sucking mosquitos. Mosquitos are a perfectly designed virus transmission system. Therefore its safe to assume to no virus has adapted itself to use you or your ants as a host to transfer a itself to either. Still new, if I'm wrong and you have examples PLZ SHOW ME!