Facts about Ants

Are you interested in pests?  Although ants are frustrating when they get into your home or when you’re having a picnic, ants do help the

Odorous Ants

environment. They are social insects, which means they live in large colonies or groups. Depending on the species, ant colonies can consist of millions of ants. Here are some facts you may be interested in learning.

• There are more than 12,000 species of ants all over the world.
• An ant can lift 20 times its own body weight. If a second grader was as strong as an ant, she would be able to pick up a car!
• Some queen ants can live for many years and have millions of babies!
• Ants don’t have ears. Ants “hear” by feeling vibrations in the ground through their feet.
• When ants fight, it is usually to the death!
• When foraging, ants leave a pheromone trail so that they know where they’ve been.
• Queen ants have wings, which they shed when they start a new nest.
• Ants don’t have lungs. Oxygen enters through tiny holes all over the body and carbon dioxide leaves through the same holes.
• When the queen of the colony dies, the colony can only survive a few months. Queens are rarely replaced and the workers are not able to reproduce.