In Tennessee there are over 50 different species of ants. Ants are everywhere. To an ant, everything is a team effort - they grow and flourish in a team atmosphere. Ants are strange little creatures and here are five facts about ants that prove it!
Fact #1 - Ants can lift over 20 times their own body weight. We've all marveled at a solitary ant carrying off a leaf 100 times it's physical size. Can you imagine if you or I could just pick up our cars and walk off with them? Every ant IS a super hero!
Fact #2 - In an ant colony, every individual has a role through a caste system. Some are workers, some are soldiers and a select few are queens. Worker ants provide for the day to day maintenance of the colony and the queen, while soldiers provide the defense. Queens have the big responsibility of laying eggs to keep the colony thriving. Each ant knows it's role and sets out every day to perform it's assigned task, making an ant colony one of the most efficiently run organizations in the natural world.
Fact #3- Ants follow trails left by scout ants to find food. If a route is blocked off, ants will attempt to go around the blockage to find the shortest route to the source. Once a route is found, an ant lays down pheromones to notify the other ants of the easiest route. Not only that, but ants actually use their antennae to smell these trails to get to that food!
Fact #4 - With the exception of the Australian Bull Dog Ant, most species of ants have poor eye sight. Ants, like most insects, have compound eyes. Meaning that each of it's eyes has multiple lenses. Some species of ants are even completely blind, sensing the world through other means.
Fact #5 - Ants "talk" to each other. Ants use pheromones to do more than just make a trail to the nearest food source. They can alert other ants to a predator and confuse other colonies of ants to get them to fight amongst themselves.
Ants are pretty amazing creatures that have existed for millions of years. They have been found in amber fossils and are on every continent except Antarctica. You can start to understand why once you learn what these amazing little creatures are able to do.
If you have an ant problem in your home we have a few options on how you can get rid of them within your home. One of our best services is our Perimeter Pest Control service. Check it out. We can take care of them for you.