Interesting Facts about Ants
Ants are small insects well known for forming colonies. Different cultures around the world use ants for food and medicine. Here are some interesting facts about ants that you probably don’t know!
Interesting Facts about Ants
- Ants can lift about 20 times their own body weight.
- Ants have the largest brains of any insect. One ant has 250,000 brain cells. For comparison, humans have 50 to 100 billion brain cells.
- Worker ants live for between 45 and 60 days on average. Queen ants live for about 30 years!
- Ants use their antennae for touch and smell.
- Ants are found in every single continent except Antarctica where it is too cold for them to survive.
- Ant eyes can spot movement very well but they do not provide good resolution. Some species of ants are actually completely blind.
- Ants use pheromones (chemicals) to communicate with each other.
- Ever dropped food and then seen heaps of ants around a few hours later? Well, worker ants leave scents when they find a good source of food telling other ants where to find it!
- Some ants are considered pests as they get into cupboards and food around the house. Ants are very hard to remove from the house as it is difficult to destroy a whole colony of ants.
- In the Bible (the book of Proverbs), ants are given as a good example for humans given their hard work and cooperation with each other.
- Termites, often called white ants, are not ants at all and are actually more closely related to cockroaches than ants.
- Workers spend the first few days of their lives caring for the Queen and any babies. They then begin to dig and work around the nest. Lastly, they start defending the nest and foraging for food.
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