yes our brains are certainly improving. Research shows that the nest generation almost always has a higher IQ than the previous one. And yes while animal have a way to comunicate they dont have language which is a much more advance form of comunication.

It's not so much we are trying to destroy ourselves but rather those we identify as our enemies/competitors. This behavior has actually been documented among animals such as pack animals and chimps.

"The foreign policy aim of ants can be summed up as follows: restless aggression, territorial conquest, and genocidal annihilation of neighboring colonies whenever possible. If ants had nuclear weapons, they would probably end the world in a week." --Journey to the Ants, page 59. Bert Holldobler & Edward O. Wilson

"Lots of people think only humans fight wars. That only humans are murderous. Let me tell you something — compared to ants, human beings are full of nothing but peace, love, and understanding."-

Ants aren't animals...?  Insects often commit acts of suicide, and murder.  For instance, females eating males after mating.

Bseides, how would you feel, being only a bit bigger than a speck of dust.  You would have a "tiny" complex too.   (And yes, I know that there are ants that get much, much, much bigger than a speck of dust.)

This would be a type of adaptation to its environment.  The plant was probably never originally immune to the Ant's poison and so it adapted to its environment to survive the poison.  The other plants have yet to do so.

This might be off the main subject but no one has said that we are different from animals because something in us tells us to form religions, build temples, designate sacred ground etc…  I don’t know other animals to do this but then there is no way I can say that for certain. I don’t know if religion is an advantage or disadvantage. People say we are smarter than animals because of our reasoning skills and our ability to build things. Yet people will defy reason and will kill for a piece of land or an item they put emotional stock into. People will defy science and technology because they have faith in a grander idea of things. Animals to my knowledge don't do this.  

actually, archangel52, assuming an evolutionary model of existance, that would most likely be the result of both the lemon ants and the plants evolving with each other in a symbiotic manner.  basically, the ants favor the plant and somehow develop herbicidal toxins; at the same time, the plant, which is favored by the ants, develops immunity.  it is also possible that the ants favored the plant because it was immune to the toxins in the first place.  saying that the plant adapted to the ant is insinuating that Lamarck's ideas of evolution are valid to some extent.

*disclaimer* i am one of those pesky inteligent design people, but i am familiar with the arguments and evidence for how evolution works.

also, isn't the topic of this post looking at human greed and the human condition, not us as compared to animals?

Posts evolve too... 

This could be something to do with our ability to lie.  Or maybe because of aliens that are using as social experiments, and so we must appease them by treating them as gods.  Haha.  Who knows? 

That would be because deep below our highly evolved brains is a primitive animal with primitive instincts.

Although I could be wrong . . .

Another thought:

As we become more technologically advanced, we cause more and more death and destruction.

This is very true.  Some things we will never be able to escape.