Those Amazing Ants

Ants are really fascinating insects even though most people just think of them as a nuisance.

Ants are extremely hard workers and have detailed colonies under ground. Each of the ants has a particular job to do and do it very well. Ants are able to carry many times their body weight and that has fascinated researchers for decades.

There are more than 12,000 different species of ants and are found in locations all over the world. Ants come in many sizes, shapes and colors. But most are very small and tend not to bite or be very harmful.

However, a few species of ants including the fire ants are larger and will bite. The bite will cause your skin to burn and to become red and inflamed.

For the most part, ants are harmless and only bite or attack if threatened.

Ants are able to communicate with each other in a variety of different ways.

They give off chemicals called pheromones that allow them to send and interpret messages to each other. They also communicate using their keen sense of smell that occurs with the use of their antennas.

Researchers have been able to identify learned behaviors among ants that are similar to how humans learn from each other.

Ants are fascinating creatures to watch. Ants usually march in a straight line and you may see a group leaving with food and another coming in to obtain food.

It can be very difficult to get rid of ants once they have invaded your home.

However, there are some very simple ways to get rid of them without poison. You can draw a line on window sills with chalk. Ants won’t cross that chalk line and will stay outdoors. 

Covering the area up with dirt isn’t effective as the ants are likely to be able to dig out of it by communicating and working together.

If you want to get rid of ant colonies you can likely do it by pouring very hot water down into the colony. You will need to do this several times before all of it is destroyed.