Ants live just about everywhere and are one of the groups of insects that cleverly live in organized colonies. It has been estimated by scientists that ants have been on earth for better than 100 million years.

Ants are omnivores and their diet of choice is fruit, seeds and other insects. They don’t live that long, about 45 to 60 days is about it, although, some worker and queen ants live longer. Ants range in size but most are pretty small, about 2 to 7 mm long, with six legs. Each leg has three joints. Ants are terrifically strong. They can lift about 20 times their body weight.

Ants are also pretty smart, as far as insects go. Their brains have about 250,000 brain cells, which is the largest among insects. It’s interesting to note that if you weighed all of the ants in the world you would find it to be the same or greater than the sum weight of all the people. Pretty amazing! It’s also notable that the lifespan of the male ant is less than that of a female.

In an ant colony there are males, females and workers. Each colony has as many as several million ants. When a colony gets too big, the winged males and females fly to a new site and start over. The males and females mate in flight.

After the queen ant lays her eggs to start the new colony, she sheds her wings. Amazingly, the queen ant mates only once. The sperm from this encounter lasts for years and produces thousands of offspring. Ant colonies are set up with elaborate social structures. Everyone in the nest has its designated duty. The ants can appear in different shades of green, blue, purple and yellow depending on their job in the nest. For example, a yellow ant has the job of cleaning the nest, while the orange has to provide daycare for the young and new eggs.

The nest is kept spotless and there are special chambers for debris and dead ants. The queen ant usually has a very long life span. She produces a chemical that workers will lick off her body, which notifies them that she is healthy.

In addition to insect facts, this author also regularly pens articles on garage door repair companies and henderson garage doors.

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