Fun Fact: Sugar ants, true to their name, love sugary substances. While looking for sweets, they form long chains to transport their haul back to their colonies. If you see a procession of worker ants leading to spilled soda or cookie crumbs, you are most likely seeing sugar ants at work.
The sugar ant originates from Australia and can adapt to urban and forest environments. Moreover, it is a nocturnal insect with a light orange coat and a dark head and abdomen. Despite their name, sugar ants do not limit themselves to sweet foods and will also consume dead insects or sip on nectar.
During the spring and early summer, winged queens leave their colonies to establish new territories. Sugar Ants will make their homes in rocks, soil, wood, or twigs. While these ants may appear harmless, they fight fiercely to protect their homes.
Username: Ekpolok Published on 2024-12-12 12:49:10 ID NUMBER: 126700
Fun Fact: Black garden ants build intricate underground tunnels and chambers extending several meters. Their tunnels house their colonies, store food, and protect them from predators.
The black garden ant commonly lives in European grasslands. These black ants have glossy ebony bodies that span only 3 to 5 millimeters, blending well with the undergrowth. Despite their size, their colonies can house 15,000 individuals, each with a role in their complex societal structure.
Regarding their diet, you'll find these ants foraging for fruit, other insects, and nectar. However, they have formed a unique relationship with aphids, "farming" them for their sweet honeydew secretions, similar to how humans rear cattle. This practice helps regulate aphid populations (similar to the ladybug who loves aphids, too).
Their worker ants also create nests in the soil, often under stones or grassy areas. These nesting ants shelter the ants and aerate the soil as they build.
Fun Fact: The bullet ant has the most painful sting among all insects worldwide. People have compared its sting to being shot, hence its name. According to the Schmidt sting pain index, the Bullet Ant sting pain can last up to 24 hours.
The bullet ant builds colonies at the foot of trees, and they do not have a queen. Instead, female ants lay eggs that become workers.
Bullet ants have keen vision and smell, which help them track intruders over long distances, find food, and navigate the forest. They eat small arthropods, nectar, and plant juices, controlling pest populations and aerating the soil.
Fun Fact: Carpenter ants chew through wood and create tunnel systems inside the hollow.
Despite chewing wood, Carpenter Ants do not eat wood. They carve up decaying wood and build homes inside them; they do not require wood particles to survive. Moreover, carpenter ants are nocturnal, weakening wood without detection.
Moreover, carpenter ants are natural foragers, traveling up to 100 yards in search of insects, proteins, and sugars. Carpenter ants also practice trophallaxis, where they share food and fluids. In addition, the carpenter ant builds satellite colonies to house their young.
Fun Fact: Tawny crazy ants often display erratic and unpredictable behavior, which explains their name. They perform quick and unexpected movements, giving the impression that they are agitated or like a child on a sugar rush.
Crazy ants originate from Africa but have since spread globally to tropical and subtropical regions1. These ants can thrive in dry and moist environments, although they prefer the latter. Moreover, they are curious about electronic devices and often live inside them, causing short circuits.
Unlike other ants, they have multiple queens that govern over "supercolonies." Combined with their rapid breeding, their social structure makes them difficult to eradicate. They eat insects, seeds, fruits, and human leftovers.
Fun Fact: Fire ants are not native to North America. In the early 1900s, they arrived by accident from South America through the delivery of shipping materials. Consequently, fire ants have spread rapidly and become a pest in many parts of the US. Moreover, seeing fire ant mounds indicates an ant infestation.
Fire ants are aggressive, dark, reddish-brown ants. Their name, "fire ant," refers to their bright color and their sting, which causes a burning sensation2. These ants build their nests in sunny areas that mimic small hills. In urban settings, they build nests in lawns, some of which run two meters underground with multiple entry and exit points. Fire ants eat plant matter, seeds, and other insects.
As invasive creatures, fire ants threaten small animals and other local wildlife. When threatened, they relentlessly sting their prey and intruders. Moreover, fire ant venom causes burning pain and abscess formation. Likewise, fire ants attack as one, stinging the intruder all over its body.
Fun Fact: Unlike most ants that scavenge for food, leafcutter ants cut and transport pieces of leaves to their nests. The ants use the leaves as a substrate to grow a specific type of fungus, their primary food source. Moreover, the ants remove harmful molds or bacteria from their "farms."
Leafcutter ants also carry leaf fragments in a distinct pattern along a well-traveled path. They predominantly live in warmer climates, such as South and Central America, Mexico, and the southern US. However, their behavior can strip entire fields of vegetation, causing problems for agriculture.
Fun Fact: Odorous house ants produce an unpleasant smell when crushed; their odor is like a mix of rotten coconut and blue cheese.
These ants live in the varied terrains of North America. Despite their size, they can survive in the soil under rocks, logs, carpets, and walls.
Moreover, adult ants will eat dead insects, sweet confections, dairy, meat, vegetables, and honeydew from aphids, scale insects, and mealybugs. Odorous house ants also follow a network of trails–indoors and outdoors–to find food and nest around hot water pipes and heaters.
Fun Fact: Pharaoh ants can form large supercolonies, a network of interconnected nests covering entire buildings. If you spot a Pharaoh ant in your kitchen, that means there are thousands of them nearby.
This Ant is native to Africa but has spread worldwide. Its love for warm and humid places has made it a major pest in hospitals, hotels, and apartment buildings. Moreover, it can transmit disease and contaminate objects. You should call ant control to handle an ant invasion.
These ants live in multi-queen colonies with hundreds of queens and thousands of workers. Since they have no territorial instinct, they merge colonies. They also have a unique "budding" behavior.
Fun Fact: Sugar ants, true to their name, love sugary substances. While looking for sweets, they form long chains to transport their haul back to their colonies. If you see a procession of worker ants leading to spilled soda or cookie crumbs, you are most likely seeing sugar ants at work.
The sugar ant originates from Australia and can adapt to urban and forest environments. Moreover, it is a nocturnal insect with a light orange coat and a dark head and abdomen. Despite their name, sugar ants do not limit themselves to sweet foods and will also consume dead insects or sip on nectar.
During the spring and early summer, winged queens leave their colonies to establish new territories. Sugar Ants will make their homes in rocks, soil, wood, or twigs. While these ants may appear harmless, they fight fiercely to protect their homes.
Fun Fact: As a defense strategy, acrobat ants lift their abdomen above their head to fend off predators.
Acrobat ants have heart-shaped abdomens that help them arch their abdomens over their head and body in a perfect backbend when they sense danger. Moreover, they emit a foul smell when upset.
There are also 400 acrobat ants worldwide, including 30 in North America. They can build their nests in forests, backyards, or rotting wood. Additionally, they can occupy abandoned ant nests. These ants are hunters and farmers, feeding on insects and tending to aphids for the honeydew they produce. They control pests and do organic recycling.
Fun Fact: Sugar ants, true to their name, love sugary substances. While looking for sweets, they form long chains to transport their haul back to their colonies. If you see a procession of worker ants leading to spilled soda or cookie crumbs, you are most likely seeing sugar ants at work.
The sugar ant originates from Australia and can adapt to urban and forest environments. Moreover, it is a nocturnal insect with a light orange coat and a dark head and abdomen. Despite their name, sugar ants do not limit themselves to sweet foods and will also consume dead insects or sip on nectar.
During the spring and early summer, winged queens leave their colonies to establish new territories. Sugar Ants will make their homes in rocks, soil, wood, or twigs. While these ants may appear harmless, they fight fiercely to protect their homes.
For those with prediabetes, diabetes, or other blood sugar issues, diet is a key part of keeping their blood sugar levels in check. Other factors, including body weight, activity, stress, and genetics, play a role in blood sugar regulation.
While some foods, such as those high in added sugar and refined carbs, might cause blood sugar variations, others can help you maintain blood sugar management while enhancing overall health.
Sugar maple is a native species from the northeastern United States and Eastern Canada regions. Although the maple leaf is Canada's national symbol, this tree is also popular in the US. Americans mostly grow sugar maple as an ornamental and shade tree. They also find it valuable because it produces maple syrup, maple sugar, and lumber for furniture making.
Fun Fact: Sugar ants, true to their name, love sugary substances. While looking for sweets, they form long chains to transport their haul back to their colonies. If you see a procession of worker ants leading to spilled soda or cookie crumbs, you are most likely seeing sugar ants at work.
The sugar ant originates from Australia and can adapt to urban and forest environments. Moreover, it is a nocturnal insect with a light orange coat and a dark head and abdomen. Despite their name, sugar ants do not limit themselves to sweet foods and will also consume dead insects or sip on nectar.
During the spring and early summer, winged queens leave their colonies to establish new territories. Sugar Ants will make their homes in rocks, soil, wood, or twigs. While these ants may appear harmless, they fight fiercely to protect their homes.
If you love sugar, you may not like this one. Sadly, sugar has one of the worst environmental footprints. WWF reveals that sugarcane is one of the most harmful crops for the planet2, as it replaces habitats rich in plant, insect, and animal life.
Moreover, it requires the intensive use of land, water, and pesticides while causing soil erosion and deforestation.
Some deforested lands have lost their carbon content, and the carbon is now in the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.
With this high climate impact, it is essential to look for a more sustainable sugar culture, including reducing our sugar consumption.
Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) is a large deciduous tree native to the Northeastern U.S. and Eastern Canada. "Sugar maples are famed for their distinctive leaves (think: Canadian flag) that explode into ideal fall colors supported by the smooth gray bark of the trunk," says Canney. "In optimal conditions, sugar maple trees can live for several centuries, with some individuals exceeding 400 years of age."