I dug up a pogo ants nest and I have about 10 queen and 10 kings but none of them are fertilized how do I get them to mate?

Javaris

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Dear Jarvis,

We are glad to hear you are interested in ants! Unfortunately it is very difficult (and impossible for many species) to get ants to mate in captivity. Most ant species need to go on a mating flight, where unmated queens and males (these are often called "sexuals") leave their nests to reproduce based on environmental queues. During these mating flights, the sexuals from all the nearby nests will congregate in a single location to find mates. Below is an image taken by Alex Wild showing one of these mating swarms.

For more tips on keeping ants and getting mated queens for your ant farm, see the following three posts here, here, and here.

Best of luck!
Corrie Moreau & the AntAsk Team

Hi,

We are the Dolphin Class. Teacher Chelsea is here with Felix, Daniel, Sean, Andrew, Wayne, Evelyn, Kate, Ginny, Ethan and Aaron. We really like ants.

Here are some of our questions:

We want to know, how many different kinds ants are there? Why do ants line up when they walk? Why are ants small? What is the difference between red and black ants? What color of ants are there? Why are ants bugs? Why do ants like to eat what people eat?

From,
The Dolphin Class

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Hi Teacher Chelsea, Felix, Daniel, Sean, Andrew, Wayne, Evelyn, Kate, Ginny, Ethan and Aaron (the Dolphin Class),

According to the AntWeb homepage, one of the most up to date and accurate resources for ant taxonomy, there are currently 14,891 ant species known to science. (We have a previous post on ant species diversity here.) These species have been described in detail by expert ant researchers around the world. However, there are likely several thousand more species that have not yet been found or researched so if you start collecting ants now, you could very well find a species that no one has seen before.

Ants leave scent trails on the ground when they want other members of their colony to be able to follow the same trail. This behavior often results in ants moving in a line down the narrow path laid by ants that have gone before. They lead each other around in order to share the location of high quality food resources, move to a new nest site, or even raid other ant colonies. Take a look at this post for a little more information. And speaking of food resources, ants like the same food that people like because they are rich in nutrients that the ants can use to grow and feed their larvae. The very same reasons that we like them!

Ants come in a wide range of sizes and colors. This post gives some details on the largest and smallest species and explains that the largest ants are 3 cm long! Not very small at all. As for colors, you already know that ants can be pure black or bright red but they can also be anything from brown to yellow. Colors often tell little about the differences between ants as they can be quite variable even within species. As you can see in these pictures taken by Alex Wild, there are even bright, golden and green ants.

Above: Camponotus seriveiventris. Below: Oecophylla smaragdina. Photos from http://www.alexanderwild.com.

We are very glad to hear that you like ants so much! Keep thinking about them and ask your teacher as many questions as you can!

Ben Rubin & the AntAsk Team

Hi,

I recently visited and isolated mountain is central Montana where I have visited from time to time for about 45 years. The mountain, known as Square Butte, rises from the badlands country of less than 4k feet above sea level to an elevation of about 5600 feet. Dry but timbered. Not much for soil.

This time we experienced a presence of ants, mostly the "red ants", that are very common throughout the area, in numbers none of us have ever experienced in all our collective time outdoors in Montana. The nearby ranch owner who has been on the mountain more than probably anyone, has never experienced this phenomenon before either.

There is hardly a yard large space in hundreds of acres at a time which is not crawling with the ants. And extraordinarily large ant hills. The nearby ranch owner who has been on the mountain more than probably anyone, has never experienced this phenomenon before either. 2011 was an epic year for moisture in the area. More rain and snow than a normal 3-5 year period. What do you think might have happened here?

Thanks,
Larry

Hi Larry,

We have contacted James Glasier, antweb's Alberta ants curator, for help with your question and here is what he had to say:

"If the area was timbered, I would probably guess Formica rufa group ants, but he also mentioned badlands, which could indicate Pogonomyrmex, like Dr. James Trager said, so any pictures would make identification easier. The density of ants seems extremely high from his description and I have not seen anything like that. I have had reports of large colonies of Formica podzolica in the last few years that just appear in farmer's yards where they weren't there the year before; colonies three to five meters in diameter compared to regular one meter nests or smaller. I have also had a few people report in southern Alberta an increase in large Formica obscuripes mounds. So it is quite possible these are indications of increased ant populations. I personally haven't collected ants in Montana and don't know the area he refers to, so I can't say for sure what else may be going on... is it possible to get pictures? The other potential thing I could think of is a large nuptial flight occurring right when he was in the area. I know Formica rufa species can be quite aggressive when nuptial flights are going on and run a round quite a bit, and Pogonomyrmex can do that in large numbers as well... so that may also have been what was happening where he was."

Hope this helps,
James Glasier (guest expert), Steffi Kautz & the AntAsk Team

Hello,

Thanks for writing such an awesome website! Would you please help me.
I have several panes of glass and instructions on how to build an ant
farm. That's not the problem. The problem is where do I get ants from?
I live in Northeast Arkansas and I do see ants outside, mainly little
black ones. A day ago I saw larger red ones going through my garden
collecting every insect they could find. Today they were nowhere to be
found. Do I always need to start with one queen? Do I just dig one up.
Hope you can help me. My son is very impatient :) He wants his ant
farm. Well, I am just as eager to get this going too.

Thanks for your time,
Daniel

Hi Daniel,

Thank you very much for contacting us! It is a very common question how to get ants for an ant farm and we have several posts on the topic. Check out this link:

http://www.antweb.org/antblog/ask-an-ant-expert/ant-farms/

If you want some ants quickly, I suggest just collecting a bunch of workers from one colony. They will die within a couple of weeks, but your son will have something to look at in the meantime and it will be interesting to observe them for a while. After most or all the workers have died, remove the remaining once and add new once. Without a picture, it is always hard to tell which ant species you might have encountered. However, largish red ants in NE Arkansas are probably a Formica species. They do not sting, but are very fast-running and a bit difficult to catch. Right now it's so hot and dry in that part of the country that all the ants have gone pretty deep under ground. Still, early in the morning, one might be able to find some near the surface, in their mounds (Formica builds mounts), or under cover objects such as rocks, logs and boards. It will be easier after we finally get some rain, though!

Good luck,
James Trager, Steffi Kautz & the AntAsk Team

Hey there!

I am currently doing an experiment on ant repellent and I noticed something weird which I would like to inquire about. For my experiment, I used chicken skin as the attractant to test whether the repellent works. I was hoping to get the same type of ants for all the set-ups so that my experiment will be fair. However, one of my set-up had black medium-sized ants attracted while the other had small red ants and medium-sized, big head red ants attracted. Both set-ups were done at the same time under the same conditions. I was thinking whether it is because the black ants and red ants were of different colonies/groups and do not mix and have their own territory. (The 2 different types of red ants could be from the same family/species.) So when any one type of the ants leave their scent on the chicken skin, the other type of ants will not come and invade their territory when they smell a foreign scent and the same type of ant will come instead when they smell the particular scent from their same kind. Thus, whichever type of ant that stumbles first on the chicken skin and leave their scent, that chicken skin will be invaded by that type of ant. Is my reasoning correct? Also, is there any way to only attract one type of ants? Because my experiment can only have 1 type of ants to be fair.

Thank you!

Regards,
Janelle

Hi Janelle,

Thanks for your interesting question and sharing your observations with us!

Without a picture, it is always hard to tell which ant species you encountered. Information on your location would be very valuable to get an idea on the ants identity as different ants are distributed in different parts of the world.

Ants of a single species often have the same color. This means that the red and the black ants you observed most likely belong to two different species. However, the red small ants and the red bid headed ants might actually be different casts of the same species. For example, there is an ant genus named Pheidole, which has two or sometimes even three different casts. The big headed individuals are called the soldiers or major workers, while the little ones are called minor workers (but as any ant workers, these are all sterile females). Here is a picture of two ants from the same species and even same nest. In this picture, you see that not only is there a distinct difference in size and morphology (i.e., shape), but also the color between the two individuals differs.

As for whether ants are deterred if a different species has left pheromone trails, I think it depends on the species identity. A dominant species would not care, while a more timid species might be repelled.

For your experiment, I think that it does not matter whether you attract ants from one or more species. You could just note how many individuals of how many different types of ants were attracted (as species is sometimes hard to distinguish). Another approach could be that you go out and collect a bunch of ants from a single nest and then test their reaction to the chicken skin in a plastic box. This would also control for other factors, such as soil type etc.

Hope this helps!

Steffi Kautz & the AntAsk Team

I was vacuuming my house And when I got to my front entrance a had a swarm of these ants all over front door and walls...... It is quite a large ant approx a 1/4" long. I have heard that fire ant have been invading our area I have small pets and children so this was concerning to me.

I can get a better picture if needed

Michelle from Surrey BC, Canada.

Dear Michelle:

The photo lacks clarity, so we won't post it, but nonetheless I can assure you it is not a fire ant, and apparently is one of your native Formica or Lasius species (which have no sting).

Further, though we have had warming winters in recent years, the essentially tropical fire ants are still not established anywhere in or near Canada. The closest location to you is Orange Co., (far southern) California.

I hope this allays any fears for pets or children.

James C. Trager of the AntAsk Team

Hello,

I have a two part Ant question that I am just so curious about.

We have a patio paved with stones and we have an Ant nest under it.We have seen the small reddish ants and their activity.

1. My question is are the Ants able to predict when it will rain? A day before rain comes we notice small sticks sticking out of the Ants nest holes.The sticks are in a very regular pattern,spaced about 6-10 inches apart.After the rain is gone for a day the sticks go away.

2. Is there more to plugging the holes beyond keeping rain out? Are they funneling water?

It is just so fascinating,we love watching wild creatures and their behaviors and when it's right out the back door, WoW!

Thank you so much for your time. We hope to hear from you soon,

Chance and Rois

Hi Chance and Rois,

Thanks for contacting us with these puzzling observations! I am not entirely sure about both your questions and here are some thoughts. As far as I know, it has never been scientifically proven that ants were able to predict rain, but there are many stories which claim it. There are also studies that claim that ants might even be able to predict earthquakes, because they sometimes nest on fault zones. It is hypothesized that ants detect Helium which is released before an earthquake.

Coming to your second question, I can only guess. I have never observed this behavior myself, but I've seen ants that cover their nests with rocks. This might be to prevent intruders from coming in or for keeping the rain out. In my own driveway, which has lots of cracks in the concrete because of tree roots, I also sometimes observe little sticks standing out. But we have little ants in the driveway and I think that earth worms are pulling the little sticks in to feed on them. They seem to chew them down. However, the sticks I see are much smaller and look softer than the one that you were showing. I found a picture online in which an earth work pulls a leaf into the ground to feed on it.

I think the only way to find out what is pulling the sticks in would be to dig it up. Let me know if you do so and what you find.

I hope these thoughts help!

All the best,
Steffi Kautz & the AntAsk Team

Hello,

I saw a picture of a leaf cutter ant and some other ants. The leaf cutter ant has a white circle (eye) on the center of its head. I noticed other ants have something there also but in different arrangements of three spots or the coloration is different. What is this? What is it for?

-Abigail

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Hello Abigail,

The white circle you observed on the leaf cutter ant Atta cephalotes is a simple eye or ocellus. Ocelli occur in many other insect orders and function as auxiliary light sensory organs. Unlike the two main compound eyes, these simple eyes consist of a single ommatidium or "lens" and can perform only basic light/dark distinction. They are not typically found in the worker castes of most ant species but when they do occur, as in the genera Atta and Formica, they range in number from 1-3. The queens and males of all ant species always have 3 ocelli.

Thanks for your question,

Alexandra Westrich, Ben Rubin & the AntAsk Team

Hi all,

What is the biggest and the smallest species of ant? And where do they live?

Thanks, Cassio

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Hi Cassio,

The biggest ants in the world are from the genus Dinoponera. The workers are about 3 cm in length (more than one inch). There are currently six valid species in the genus Dinoponera and they occur in Neotropical rainforests. The ant species Paraponera clavata, the giant Neotropical bullet ant, is also extremely large and the workers reach sizes of about an inch. Paraponera clavata also occurs in rainforests of the Neotropics and is distributed from Honduras in the North to Brazil in the South.

There are many very small ant species and the smallest probably belong to the genus Carebara. This genus comprises 160 valid species, which are found almost worldwide.

Dinoponera australis - one of the largest ants in the world. Photo from http://www.alexanderwild.com/

All the best,
Stefanie Kautz, Arista Tischner & the AntAsk Team

When in Borneo, I noticed that the Diacamma ponerines on the forest floor of primary forest surrounded the entrance to their nest at the bottom of saplings with nests of twigs like birds' nests. Do you know what these are for? They also turned out to be regularly spaced.

Thanks,

Ruth Levy

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Hi Ruth,

The stacks of twigs over the entrances of the colonies you found are likely required for proper nest thermoregulation. Temperatures in ant nests must be maintained within particular limits or the ants may die or their young may fail to develop correctly. The twigs can contribute to temperature control by keeping nests out of direct sunlight and protecting against wind. We have several previous posts on colony temperature regulation here, here and here.

Thanks for your question,

Alexandra Westrich, Ben Rubin & the AntAsk Team