Honey is a very unique kind of viscous liquid; it tastes just makes it part of those few healthy sweet things that you can take. It has so many uses and is widely used around the world. In African countries, especially in countries like Nigeria, people are fond of making counterfeit of products, especially ones of high value like the Honey. So, people devised means to know if particular honey is original, one of those means include checking if the honey attracts ant if it does not mean it’s original and good.
Honey is Hygroscopic, means it has very little or no moisture and will readily absorb moisture from the air. The bees make sure they extract moisture from it and wax it, thereby making it just look thick and very viscous. Although honey will absorb moisture from the atmosphere, (Hygroscopic Rehydration), the reasons bees do wax their honey, so honey is more vulnerable to moisture when it’s gets to human care.
The secret behind keeping any solid food or some kind of liquid food preserved is to keep it warm and make sure the moisture content of the particular food is low, thereby reducing the risks of micro-organisms and ants inhabiting or trying to consume the food. Ants are attracted to foods with moisture, also micro-organisms, but with a concrete and well-made honey, it’s just bad business for the ants because the moisture content of pure honey is always less than twenty percent and the last thing any ant want is to die by getting stuck.
As previously stated, when honey is exposed to air, it readily absorbs moisture. Technically Ants are still going to come for the Honey because sweet things can be quite attractive, this will happen when the moisture content rises above twenty percent. The Bees are good at keeping the moisture content low and below eighteen percent, thereby reducing the risks of ants invading their hives but what happens when other beings such as Humans collect the honey?
We leave them to expose to air and the Honey absorbs so much moisture, attracts ants and you pick up your honey only to find ants everywhere.
