Maybe the masks were to protect them from the gas they may have encountered, or worse.
Edit from last night I left out.
The takers also need the givers so they'll have something to take from. When something really good happens as a blowback from a giver, the ant on the hill is first to claim credit and start taking. The worker ants keep working. Somewhere, I feel, another ant farm is being formulated. It will have an ant standing among the other ants giving them the credit. Our taxes pay for so much, and those with the high paychecks would be nowhere without us. Some nerve.