Sniffles-Ants Relationship

This article focuses on the interactions between Sniffles and The Ants.

Overview
Sniffles has had a long history of conflict against the ant family. Likewise, the Ants are shown to fear Sniffles given that he always tries to eat them on sight. Whenever these interactions occur, it always ends with the Ants getting away after Sniffles is tortured and killed.

Sniffles' side
While Sniffles is often depicted as a caring friend to the other main characters, the same cannot be said to ants. Blast from the Past reveals that Sniffles himself started this war by going back in time to prehistoric days. During this time, ants and anteaters seemed to be friends, as we see an ancestor of Sniffles carrying an ant on his shoulder. By eating a nearby ant, Sniffles unknowingly lead his ancestor to do the same to his friend, thus being responsible for his ongoing conflict. To this day, Sniffles unsuccessfully tries to eat ants with disastrous results on his terms. Most of the time, he brings the conflict onto himself and torments the ant family to the point where they must resort to sadistic measures. An example being A Hard Act to Swallow, where, after being spotted by Sniffles, an ant tries to run away before being swallowed. Unable to escape by climbing back out of his mouth, the rescue party is given no choice but to tie up his arteries and burst his chest open.

The Ants' side
In a similar vein to their natural enemy, the Ants are shown to care a lot about each other despite their deep hatred of Sniffles. While Sniffles is often the one who starts these quarrels, the Ants could be considered equally guilty if not worse. In Suck it Up, one of them steals cookies from Sniffles as he is sick in bed. Nevertheless, it is clear that they can go too far with their retribution, especially considering that their nemesis is only following his instincts as a predator.

The Ants are shown to have intelligent traits like most of the characters. Assuming whether ants without anthropomorphic traits exist in this world, it makes any wonder why Sniffles chooses going after the ant family. It can be implied that Sniffles is responsible for the missing father figure of the ant family, which could explain their malicious tendencies against him.

Other characters
Sniffles is the only character that the Ants have encountered and killed onscreen. Whether anybody else has dealt with the Ants is unclear. When other characters appear in such episodes, they seem to be unaware of the quarrels, disappearing right before the Ants show up. In Tongue Twister Trouble, when Sniffles was clearly being tormented by the Ants, Cro-Marmot and Giggles - who were briefly shown skating on the lake along with Sniffles - weren't around to help him.

It is also unclear whether the Ants' hatred extends to other characters or is limited to Sniffles. Lumpy unknowingly saves the mother ant in Tongue in Cheek by stepping on Sniffles' tongue, and the ant was shown waving before descending into her home, either to tease Sniffles or presumably to thank Lumpy.

Trivia

 * So far, Sniffles has only once eaten an ant and got off scot-free.
 * Their rivalry may be based off of The Ant and the Aardvark . It is comparable to Itchy and Scratchy due to the often gory aftermaths.