Ants follow eachother in a line so they don't get lost on their way back to the nest. When they've lost track of the scent for any number of different reasons back to the nest they will follow the ant in front of them for guidance eventually turning into a "death spiral" seen in the picture. The ants are lost and will never find their way home and will march to their deaths.
This death spiral/"ant mill" is actually quite short, though still deadly - in the worst case scenarios, a death spiral can be literally kilometers long, some ants might not even make a single revolution around it, which is kinda terrifying to think about.
reason why i said "most" not "all" most examples are from the 17th and 18th century when proof was hard to ascertain and there have only been a handful of modern occurring examples since the prevalence of science and photography
Far fewer rats living like they did in the 17th and 18th century nowadays, though. It really feels like one of those things where it's difficult to prove either way since the conditions cannot be duplicated in modern times. I'm still leaning towards more being faked, but not having huge chunks of a population living in 17th century squalor may be a factor in whether or not a rat king could actually form.
Far fewer rats living like they did in the 17th and 18th century nowadays, though.
TIL rats also have wealthy capitalists siphoning the means of production. Imagine being a rat back then. All the free food and squalor. Makes sense there would be more kings!
fair. but having gone through a phase where I read all of Crowley, Eteilla, Charles Fort, bunch of Golden Dawn / Rosicrucian texts etc I just get this feeling that it was hokum most of the time for dramatic effect
Personally input everything with sugar in it in a sealed container. Started doing that about 8 years ago and I've never had an issue with ants since (they were the reason I started doing that).
I believe they usually follow the trail of the ants walking infront of them so when they're walking in a circle they'll technically walk in a circle indefinitely.