When an ant falls in the water, ants are not necessarily holding their breath in order to prevent the water from getting into them. If the ants do fall into the water, there is enough oxygen within them to allow them to open their spiracles freely. If ants fall into the water, they will close their spiracles and use the stored oxygen inside to respire.
As I said, ants cannot live without oxygen, but they can always live without breathing because the ants are able to store enough oxygen within their bodies for it to work.
Ants cannot breathe underwater because their systems are not designed to pull oxygen out of the molecules of water.
Ants cannot run out of breath because ants do not have the same kind of lungs as mammals, which are what produce breathing in the first place. No, ants do not breathe in and out. To survive, ants need to process oxygen, but unlike most animals, they do not use their lungs.
It is like our lungs, except insects do not use blood to transport oxygen from their tracheae to the rest of their bodies. Oxygen from the air gets into the tracheae via a spiracle and then is delivered to the insect’s overall body straight away.
Insects respire through spiracles, which open in the abdomen, and the intake of oxygen is essentially a chemical process. Ants breathe through spiracles, which are microscopic pores inside the body, which need to fill up with water in order for them to drown. Asian weavers breathe in oxygen through spiracles, which are a series of holes located along their sides.
A series of holes on the sides of their bodies known as spiracles is how the ants get their oxygen to stay alive. Like most insects, ants take in oxygen via holes in their stomachs called spiracles, which provide enough oxygen for them to properly move around during the day. In some cases, ants allow for an air bubble to form around their stomach, which allows them to get oxygen when they are submerged under water for a brief time.
For this reason, it is very common to see ants moving about for some time under the water before drowning. You should note that ants rarely drown in the water, as they are usually buoyant because of their light weight, which can support surface tension of water. Ants in soapy water would instantly drown as there would be no surface tension to support them. Ants can drown in water if they are submerged longer than they can hold their breath, usually for 24 hours.
Instead, they typically close their spiracles and keep breathing for the duration of the time that they are submerged. Ants may shut their spiracles while underwater, where they may hold their breath for up to 24 hours. Closing their spiracles keeps water from flooding into their bodies, but it also robs them of oxygen. While closing their spiracles means that water cannot flood the Ant’s bodies, it also means they do not gain any oxygen.
Roaches just cover their spiracles to prevent any water from entering their bodies, then travel down floors and into bathroom drains. While swimming up floors and toilet drains to get into structures is not very common, it does occur. Once the water has been released and oxygen begins flowing back into their spiracles, the ants trapped by floodwaters will start resuming normal activities.
If Ants cannot find a way to obtain water after being out of contact with any source for approximately two weeks, they will die from dehydration. If ants do not get any food for a week or two, then they starve just like every other living organism. An ant going hungry for too long will die of hunger, although they might have stored up some food in their bodies beforehand (some worker ants function like living food stores). Ant colonies can only survive for about four weeks without any kind of food coming in, regardless of how many ants are present during this time.
Some ants are more active than others when they are scavenging for food, but they all need some kind of nourishment to survive. Some ants are more active than others, such as ones that live in leaves and on tall rocks, where they have a lower probability of becoming dehydrated.
The most active ants, which are constantly patrolling, may be able to pick up enough small insects beneath rocks and logs so that more active ants can feed on them and supply food to their colonies. All ants must find food for their colonies in order to survive; certain species are more active than others in finding resources, as they live higher in leaves or above the ground, where the rain is sufficient to provide for them.
Ant colonies may be far larger than they look at first glance, so whatever ants you can actually kill are probably not going to make much difference. In any event, under normal circumstances, ants with deep dives and larger ones are more likely to survive being flushed down a toilet than smaller ones.
The exception of the swimming-unable ants is the diving ant, known scientifically as Camponotus schmitzi. The ants are able to survive for such long periods of time underwater, or within the hollow glass, because air bubbles are trapped on the ant’s coats. Instead, they have spiracles — holes that connect with tubes leading into the interior of the body, so air can spread out enough close to all of an ants cells for it to enable internal respiration — an oxidative process that creates energy. The movement of an ant helps the oxygen to diffuse across the tubes, and release carbon dioxide also comes out of said tubes.