How do ants walk on the ceiling?

I haven’t been able to find an answer in any books, so I asked my friend, Larry Gilbert, who is an entomologist studying insects.

He is not sure, but he thinks that many insects have tiny bristles or short hairs on the bottoms of their feet.

If that’s true, the hairs must be tiny—small enough to hold on to very small irregularities in the surface. Some insects, maybe ants, can walk on the underside of glass. Of course, even glass has a rough surface when seen by a powerful microscope.