Army Ants otherwise known as Soldier Ants are very surprising insects, at times consider to be pest which lives underground or most times in our yard eating up our wood or fiber materials.
Moreover, this article is put in place to cover every area on the facts, behavior, and how to get rid of army ants, in our surroundings, and even inside our house as the start infesting our homes.
However, in no time, we are going to have a view on the updated facts about army ant.
In addition, we hope you know that army ants do not exist on their own species, they are formed from genes of a normal working ant. Moreover, let’s proceed to the fact about army ants.
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Army Ants Facts
Army ants are insects with lots of interesting facts and capabilities regardless of their size and structure which we will take into consideration as far as army ants are being mentioned in this article.
Moreover, army ants on the other hand have merits and demerits to their fellow ants and humans. These merits and demerits are all discussed here under the facts about army ants.
- Army ants are legion fighters that fight and hunt alongside their brothers.
- A group of army ant is called a colony.
- The colony of the army ant is headed by a queen.
- When a queen of an army ant colony is dead, the colony dies.
- Army ants are categorized as raid cause the attack at once.
- They are capable of living their prey in a deadly situation (Humans).
- They are categorized under deadly species of ant.
- Once they capture a particular prey there is no escape.
- Army ants unlike other ants do not have or build nests, they go around moving from one colony to another.
- Worker ants unlike the army ants are blind or possess low vision.
- A colony of army ants is headed by only one queen.
- The queen is bigger than a regular army ant.
- They possess an enlarged abdomen that contains up to 3-4 million eggs.
- Male army ants are usually large.
- When a normal group of ants needs food and they find out that they are predators, they send their scouts to do the work.
- Army ants are omnivores, meaning they can feed on both animals and plants.
- Most times when the army ants want to mate with a queen, it seeks permission, and when the normal ants agree, they take-off its wings so that it can survive or fit in their nest.
- When a colony is too large, the split into two groups and it usually happens 3 times a year.
- A colony of army ants can consume 500,000 animals’ food a day.
There are your facts about army ants (up to date as studies tells), also interesting and educative points listed for you.
Moreover, we are considering next the behavior of an army ant to its surroundings and the ecosystem.
The behavior of Army Ants
Army ants are naturally aggressive insects which when troubled can not be controlled by any means.
However, this heading will be looking into in details, their behavior and related facts about the behaviors of army ant.
To other ants, army ants tend to have very good behavior sacrificing their lives just like a soldier would do, the show kindness, sympathy, and love as a behavior.
Such is seen as they use their own body to form a bridge to transport food to their nest in that process they themselves killed for the protection of their civilians.
Moreover, most times the army ants don’t seem to be friendly with humans as they are ever ready to release their last venom before they are smashed to death.
Therefore, if you come in contact with an army ant it is important to abstain yourself and call your pest exterminators to do the job for you.
This is one good reasons you should try our pest control services and trust us by letting us handle the rest.
Let’s proceed, the army ant can have both positive and negative behavior, however, these ants are considered heroes but for humans they are pest and we are predators to them.
After that brief discussion on the behavior of the army ant, we are considering the life cycle of an army ant as our next heading stay alert and focused as we are yet to give you the best.
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The Life cycle of an Army Ants
The life cycle of an army is not yet decided though we have the answer to these roaming queries in full detail.
In addition, we have below how the transformation of the life cycle of an ant.
The life cycle of army ants is determined by a stationery phase when the Queen is enlarged with eggs in her abdomen and the nomadic stage where the colony moves in search of good sources for their growing larvae.
In a short phrase, the army ant life cycle is of two main divisions, the Stationery, and the Nomadic stage.
The stationery stage which consists of when the queen’s ovaries develop and the eggs are laid, and the colony stays in a fixed position.
While the nomadic stage is when the queen is mobile, the colony requires frequent movement and the larvae need food.
There is the outlined life cycle of an army and how their movement during cycling is done. Furthermore, we are considering the movement of the army ants.
Picture of Army Ants
Below is a picture of an army ant;
Movement of Army Ant
The movement of an army ant might not sound important to you but it came appealing to us that it is necessary to involve the movement of an army ant.
The movement of an army ant is quite different compared to that of other ants. A single individual ant moves at a normal speed but when the colony is involved, the mass is slow.
Most army ant moving is in the shape of an amoeba in other words their movement is shapeless and will affect their moving partner that’s why you never find army ants in a straight moving pattern. However, the attract company, and they feed on it to sustain their movement and journey.
Above is the answer to the movement of an army ant, their way of moving, and not forgetting the activities they carry out while moving. The next heading will be focused on the comparison of army ants to fire ants.
Comparison: Army Ants vs Fire Ants
There is nothing that will best describe their difference and comparison other than a video and here is one:
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How did Army Ants Get in My Yard?
When this is discovered, it is said to be a sign of infestation, the army ant can get into your yard in different ways, however, we are going to be considering that in this heading.
Moreover, they army ants getting into your yard or home could be due to the fact that the migrate easily, also, when dividing their colony, this is another way they could get in your yard.
If you find an army ant nest, it is possible that there are already made colonies in your yard or around.
Other possible ways, these ants find their way into your homes are through cracks, crevices, and other crawl spaces as they forage for their stay which might be over in a short period of time.
Hope you have gotten your answer through that short session of how did army ants get in my yard.
In addition, helping you get rid of the army ants infestation, we are discussing possible elimination steps in our next heading below.
How to get rid of Army Ant
Getting rid of an army ant is not really a big problem, however, at the start but when you let them multiply it becomes something you have to call exterminators which will cost you rather than doing it yourself.
That’s one main reason we have added the elimination steps to this article to help you in cases where you’re low on budget.
Doing this will cut down the expenses and you will gain knowledge on how you can use the do it yourself method to get rid of these ants. Follow this simple procedure.
- Place an order for Terro (a manufactured product made from sodium borate and sugar water) around the region where the army ants are dwelling and feeding.
- Spray it on the area or surroundings where you see small drops on paper.
- Allow the ants flock to the terro and consume it.
- The ants transfer the terro to their colony to share with other ants, killing them all.
That is the easiest method you will ever get tackling a colony of army ants, so far it has been an interesting topic figuring out these guys from their facts and how to get rid of them so I think it’s time we concluded on this.
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Conclusion
After all the ups and downs on this interesting topic (Army Ants), it is time we end our discussion on this interesting topic as you must have read from facts to how to get rid of them and other touching aspect of this topic all in details.
Moreover, this doesn’t mean that we can’t take any more challenge you faced while trying to understand this topic.
Feel good to send your queries, comments, contribution, and problems over to us by commenting below or use contact us form as we are ever ready to serve you better.
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