Carpenter Ant Extermination
About Carpenter Ants
Ants, in general, possess many amazing traits; we have all seen them. A single ant can lift more than 100 times its body weight. Its body can support up to 5,000 times its weight. They have the ability to communicate via chemical pheromones which gives the community phenomenal organizational abilities allowing them to work together. A colony of ants can build or rebuild a mound in a very short time. They actually conduct war against other ant colonies. They are truly incredible insects.
Breeding of Ants
A single colony can number in the millions or even hundreds of millions. In fact, on the Ishikari coast of Hokkaido, Japan, a colony of ants was estimated at an incredible 306 million worker ants and one million queens. It existed in 45 nests that were interconnected via underground passages over a total area of 670 acres. Most ant colonies have a single queen, but there are exceptions.
Lifecycle of an Ant
An ant is born from a tiny egg laid by a queen who will have spent her entire life (typically 3 to 6 years) producing as many as 1,700 eggs each day. The eggs are deposited with care in a nursery by sterile female worker ants. They will then hatch into larvae that spin a cocoon and become pupae. After emerging from their silken maturation chambers ants are fully grown and ready to take their place in the colony. The time from egg to adult typically takes 25 to 38 days, but depends on the species.
Flying Ants Mate
Usually, in the spring, about one year after a new nest has been established the mating ritual begins. Winged fertile females and their, smaller, male counterparts emerge from the nest and take flight. Some species mate on the ground, but others can breed as they fly. Mating swarms contain thousands of potential queens, but few survive long enough to establish a thriving colony. As is often the case in the insect world males die shortly after breeding. A queen ant requires sperm only once unlike mammals which require it for each offspring produced. She stockpiles the sperm collected during her first, and only, mating flight in a sac called the spermathecal. Doing this she stores all she’ll ever need for a lifetime of egg production.
Budding Ants
Budding or dividing of a nest may occur if it has more than one fertile queen. Workers and a queen move to a suitable location carrying some of the original colony’s pupae with them. This can also occur if a nest is disturbed. A colony may divide into two or more nests and may also continue to support the original nest.
How Ants Organize
Ants communicate via pheromones laying information via chemical trails or touching antennae with other ants. In an extremely short period of time the entire nest can unite.
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