The autumn air is crisp, and the autumn wind, still carrying a bit of summer heat, blows through the grass, setting off layers of dark green with golden waves.

After defeating the ant nests that settled at the bottom of the tree trunks, the northern branch of the mother nest successively cleaned up the surrounding ant colonies step by step, becoming the insect overlord on this piece of land.

They followed Zero's instructions and sent flying ants to guard the fruits on the small trees. At the same time, they were also actively looking for a suitable breeding room.

The autumn wind is bleak, and in this mature season, food gradually becomes abundant. Some weeds on the grassland gradually produce a large number of seeds, and many autumn insects become active and look for food everywhere.

Those insects that need to hibernate or do not need to hibernate, all eat fat and strong, and a large number of insects begin to bury the eggs of their offspring in the soil.

These undoubtedly provide a large amount of food information for the ant colony led by Zero, who has almost all the surrounding vision.

Ant colonies also need to survive the winter. The cold air in winter prevents ant colonies from moving on the ground, so they must also store enough food.

Although in the summer, the ant colonies attack in all directions and harvest a large amount of food, the mother nest and branch nests have already stored enough food to satisfy the current size of the ant colony through the cold winter.

But who can have too much food? What's more, under Zero's command, even in the cold winter, the ant colonies hidden underground will not stop growing, which requires more food to provide security.

.

If there is insufficient food, the ant colony can only lie dormant in the cold winter. In Ling's opinion, this is undoubtedly a waste of time throughout the winter.

The amount of grain stored became larger and larger, and the ant colonies had to expand their nests again. They dug new granaries again and stored old grains and new grains separately in the order of capture.

The ant nest also ushered in another round of expansion.

Although the food supply has increased significantly, Zero has no plans to further expand the ant colony on a large scale.

On the one hand, because winter is approaching, Ling must store enough food to ensure that everything is safe. At the same time, in Ling’s planning, there are still many projects that need to continue construction in winter, which will undoubtedly require huge food consumption.

On the other hand, it is also preparing for expansion in the coming spring.

Expanding the ant colony on a large scale before the possible risks of cold winter arrive will undoubtedly increase the possibility of risks. Although Zero hopes that the ant colony can expand quickly, it does not mean that he will choose to take risks to achieve this.

Judging from the current situation, as long as it develops steadily, it is only a matter of time before the ant colony's power covers the entire grassland. This goal can be achieved as long as it develops steadily, and there is no need to take unnecessary risks.

Since the branch nest where No. 3 is located and the mother nest have opened an underground fast passage connecting each other, the western branch nest closest to the mother nest has also completed the construction of the passage a few days ago.

Due to the long distances, the remaining directions are still being excavated. However, according to the current progress, these passages can be completed before winter comes.

Currently, Zero's ant colony already has 25 queens, with a total of more than 20,000 ants of various types. The food stored in the ant nest is enough for the existing ant colony for two seasons, and it continues to increase.

A total of 7 earthworm breeding rooms have been discovered, five of which have been put into use, raising 22 adult earthworms, more than 100 larvae, and countless eggs.

However, due to the reproduction cycle of earthworms, it has not been able to increase the output of the ant colony.

The other two are under rapid construction and are expected to be completed in ten days.

In another month, the earthworm larvae currently being raised will reach maturity, and they will combine with the original adults to lay eggs within a few days. A large number of eggs will hatch before winter.

This batch of hatched earthworm larvae will all become the initial ration of the ant colony over the winter, including some adult earthworms.

Due to the shortage of breeding rooms, the ant colony cannot support so many adult earthworms. The humus food they eat is not a problem, but it ensures that they live safely in the ant nest instead of drilling holes everywhere and damaging the structure of the ant nest.

This is something that current ants cannot do.

Ling actually has an immature idea in his mind, but has never put it into practice. This involves taking certain risks and taking a long enough time, so Ling has been hesitant.

The idea is very simple. It is to build a completely unhardened breeding space, put a small number of earthworms into it, and then send a large number of soldier ants to closely guard it.

Once you find an earthworm trying to escape, pull it out immediately and attack it, causing as much pain as possible without causing fatal injuries, and then release it.

This cycle repeats over time, and over time, it may be possible to complete the domestication of these earthworms one day.

However, the large-scale expansion of the ant colony has stopped, there is enough food, and the cold winter is approaching, and it will take a lot of time to complete this work. Ling thought, there seems to be no need to do this at the moment.

However, if this idea is possible, it will undoubtedly be a great plan for the ant colony for generations. It will also be a huge reform for the ant colony's way of survival. It is not a bad idea to call it evolution. After all, this is a real

"Earthworm Ranch"!

"How about setting up a pilot test first? If the risk is controllable, it won't be too late to expand the scale. If it cannot be controlled, the loss will not be too great." Ling thought this way.

Once you make a decision, do it immediately. Zero has always been more action-oriented.

He immediately ordered three hundred worker ants to come out of the mother nest and let them open a passage that was more than two meters long, two centimeters wide and two centimeters high, from the easternmost ant chamber of the mother nest.

The ant colony carried out Zero's orders faithfully as always.

This passage only relies on these three hundred ants, so it obviously cannot be achieved in a short time. Zero is not in a hurry, it is just a guess of his own. Whether it will succeed or not is still a matter of debate. At present, the outside world is when there is plenty of food, and worker ants are needed everywhere.

of labor force.

It is the wisest choice to devote more worker ants to the work of carrying and hoarding food.

With the worker ants working around the clock, the passage was completed after six days, and the ants also used their own saliva to simply reinforce the outer wall of the passage.

After the passage was completed, Zero ordered them to dig a shallow pit fifty centimeters in diameter and five centimeters deep at the end of the passage.

This is obviously a much larger project, requiring only 300 worker ants and taking several months to complete.
Chapter completed!