Ant Control

Ant Identification Guides: Ant Control and Extermination

Did you know that an average ant can lift 20 times its body weight? Our ant pest guide contains more fun facts and information for children about ants.

Ant

The phylogeny for the extant ant families. *Cerapachyinae can be considered paraphyletic++ Brady and colleagues synonymized the previous dorylomorph subfamilies under Dorylinae. 2014

Formicidae are the family of eusocial insects. Ants, together with related wasps or bees, make up the Hymenoptera order. In the Cretaceous period, vespoid wasp ancestors gave rise to ant ancestors. Over 13,800 of the 22,000 species that have been identified have been classified. Their distinctive node-like structure and geniculate (elbowed antennae are what distinguish them.

The size of ant colonies can vary from just a few predatory individuals in small natural cavities to large colonies with millions of individuals. Many castes of sterile, unwingless females make up larger colonies. They are mostly workers (ergates), soldiers (dinergates), and other specialised individuals. Nearly all ant colonies have some fertile males, called “drones”, and one or more females called the “queens (gynes). Because the colonies appear to function as one entity, the superorganisms are called superorganisms. This is because they all work together to support the colony.

Nearly every landmass in the world has been colonized by ants. Antarctica is the only place without native ants, as well as a few inhospitable or remote islands. Ants are a vital part of most ecosystems, and they may make up 15-25% to the terrestrial animal biomass. Their social organization and ability to modify and tap resources and defend themselves has contributed to their success in many environments. They have long co-evolved with other species to form mutualistic, parasitic and commensal relationships.

An ant society has division of labour, communication between people, and the ability to solve complex issues. These similarities with human societies are a long-standing inspiration and subject of research. Many cultures use ants for their medicinal and culinary purposes. Some species are highly valued for their ability to control biological pests. However, their ability to exploit resources can bring them into conflict with humans as they can cause damage to crops and intrude on buildings. Certain species, like the red imported fire-ant (Solenopsis Invicta), are considered invasive species by other countries because they establish themselves in areas that were not theirs.

The words ant and emmet are both from ante, emete from Middle English. These come from aemette, an Old English word that is related to Saxon e(emt), empe and varieties (Old Saxon emeta), and German Ameise, (Old High German ameiza). These words are all West Germanic *aemaitjon. The original meaning of the word was “the biteer” (from Proto-Germanic*ai-, which means “off, away”, + *mait- which means “cut”)). Formicidae, the Latin formica (“ant”), is the Latin name for the family. This Latin formica is also the source of the words in Romance languages such as Spanish hormiga and Portuguese formiga. Cf. Sanskrit vamrah; Greek murmex myrmex; Old Church Slavonic Mraviji, Old Irish moirb; Old Norse Maur; Dutch mier, Swedish mier, Danish myre and Middle Dutch Mier.

The Hymenoptera order includes the Formicidae family, which includes bees and sawflies. An ant lineage was found within the stinging bees. A 2013 study suggested that they may have evolved from a sister group, the Apoidea. E. O. Wilson and colleagues discovered fossil remains of Sphecomyrma, an ant that lived during the Cretaceous period. The fossil, which was found in amber around 92 million year ago, shows features that were found in wasps but not in modern ants. The mid-Cretaceous is when the oldest fossils of ants were found. They are extinct stem-groups like the Haidomyrminae, Sphecomyrminae, and Zigrasimeciinae. Modern ant subfamilies appeared towards the end the Cretaceous about 80-70 millions years ago. Around 60 million years ago, ants became more diverse and took over ecological dominance. Some groups, like the Martialinae and Leptanillinae, may have diverged from the early primitive ants that are likely to have been predators beneath the soil’s surface.

A few primitive ants lived on the Laurasian supercontinent (the Northern Hemisphere) during the Cretaceous Period. They are not represented in fossil records in a way that is comparable to other insect populations. Their fossil evidence represents only 1% of the insect fossil evidence in this era. After adaptive radiation, ants became dominant at the start of the Paleogene period. Between the Oligocene & Miocene, 20-40% of all fossil insects had been discovered in major fossil deposits. Around one in 10 genera of the Eocene species survived to the present. Today, 56% of the genera found in Baltic amber fossils are still alive (early Oligocene) and 92% of those in Dominican amber fossils are still living (apparently the early Miocene).