Click on the pictures above for more detailed information on that variety

Here's some interesting facts of ants you might not know

Most individuals in a colony are wingless workers. During the year, mature colonies produce winged males and females, which leave the colony in swarms. After mating, the female sheds her wings and attempts to establish a new colony. Ant colonies can be long-lived. The queens themselves can live for up to 30 years, while workers live from 1 to 3 years. Males, however, are more transitory, surviving only a few weeks.  Ant queens are estimated to live 100 times longer than solitary insects of a similar size.

With their combined weight greater than the combined weight of all humans, ants are the most numerous type of animal.

If a man could run as fast for his size as an ant can, he could run as fast as a racehorse.

Strong in relation to their size, ants can carry 10 to 20 times their body weight.   They work in teams to move extremely heavy things.

 The abdomen of the ant contains two stomachs. One stomach holds the food for itself and second stomach is for food to be shared with other ants.

Some worker ants are given the job of taking the rubbish from the nest and putting it outside in a special rubbish dump.

Ants communicate with each other through chemicals called pheromones. These chemical signals are more developed in ant species than in other insect groups. In fact ants use pheromones for other purposes as well. A crushed ant will emit an alarm pheromone which in high concentration sends nearby ants into an attack frenzy; and in lower concentration, merely attracts them. To confuse enemies, several ant species use "propaganda pheromones", which cause their enemies to fight amongst themselves. If a worker ant has found a good source for food, it leaves a trail of scent so that the other ants in the colony can find the food.

Ant brains are largest amongst insects.  Mushroom shaped brain appendages have function similar to the gray-matter of human brains.  It has been estimated that an ant's brain may have the same processing power as a Macintosh II computer.

Thousands of years ago, King Solomon wrote: "Go to the ant, consider its ways and be wise".

While 10,000 species may exist worldwide about 100 different species of ants occur in Missouri. About one-fourth of these may enter homes, but only about a dozen are common house pests.

Caldwell Pest Management