Kids Zone
Activities and worksheets to educate children about different bugs and animals.
Games & Puzzles
Download bug specific games and puzzles. Children can learn while having fun.
Fun Bug Facts
Learn Fun Facts about bugs
Activities and worksheets to educate children about different bugs and animals.
Download bug specific games and puzzles. Children can learn while having fun.
Learn Fun Facts about bugs
Ant control can be difficult, but there are some things you should know about how ants’ behavior can lead to big headaches for you and your home:
• Entry: Ants can enter through even the tiniest cracks, seeking water and sweet or greasy food substances in the kitchen
pantry or storeroom areas.
• Scent trails: Ants leave an invisible chemical trail which contains pheromones for others to follow once they locate the food
source.
• Nest locations: They can nest about anywhere in and around your house; in lawns, walls, stumps, even under foundations.
• Colony size: Colonies can number up to 300,000 to 500,000, and whole colonies can uproot and relocate quickly when
threatened.
• Colony Lifetime: A colony can live a relatively long lifetime. Worker ants may live seven years, and the queen may live as
long as 15 years
The ant life cycle has four distinct and very different life stages: egg, larvae, pupae and adult. This is known as complete metamorphosis. It generally takes from several weeks to several months to complete the life cycle, depending upon the ant species
and environmental factors.
Eggs
A female ant that successfully mates with a male ant will become a queen ant that lays eggs. Fertile queens select a sheltered
place to begin a nest (colony) and begin laying eggs. Ant eggs are very small – only about a half of a millimeter in diameter. The
eggs are also oval, white and transparent.
Larvae
After about 1-2 weeks in the egg stage, a grub-like, legless ant larvae hatches. This stage has a voracious appetite, and the
adult ants spend much of their time feeding the larvae with food and liquids they digest and regurgitate.
Pupae
After the larvae molts and shed their skin, they change into the pupal stage. Pupae appear somewhat like adults except their
legs and antennae are folded and pressed against the pupal body. Initially, ant pupae are usually white, but slowly become darker in color as they age. Depending upon the ant species, pupae may be housed in a protective cocoon.
Adult
Once the pupal stage is complete, the adult ant comes on the scene. At the time of emergence, the adult ant is fully grown, butdarkens in color as it ages. Adult ants are one of three different colony castes; queens, workers or males. Queens are fertile females that lay all the eggs in a colony. Workers are females that do not reproduce, but do gather food; feed the larvae; andmaintain and clean the nest. Workers are wingless, and it is the worker stage that is seen foraging around for food or defending the colony from intruders. The male ants are winged, but their only job is to mate with the queens during the swarming process.
Army Ants
Cow Killer Ant
Forelius pruinosus
Grease Ants
Roger’s Ants
Small Honey Ants
Tawny Crazy Ants (Rasberry Crazy Ant)
Twig Ants
White-Footed Ants
More Information
Ants Stings
Ants in Your House
Ant Mounds
Boric Acid & Ants
Queen Ants
Winged Ants
