Its early Spring and your sat in your conservatory. Basking in the watery sunshine that pours through your double glazed windows. Then from the corner of your eye you see a couple of small dark crawling insects……They’re back, again! Garden Ants.

No matter how well you seal the building and how new and well sealed your doors and windows are, they find there way back, year after year..
Well as much as a pest and nuisance they are, they are actually a very interesting and complex insect.

Ants on the march.

We have listed the top eight interesting facts about this clever pest.

1. Communication, ants are a colony insect and have very complex social networks. They communicate to keep these networks functioning and this is why ant colonies are so successful and productive. They communicate by a number of different methods, the main one is chemical (scent trails), they also touch, tap and feel one another with their antennae and bodies.
2. How do ants hear. You must have seen pictures or even looked closely at an ant going about his day to day business. Well the fact is they do not have ears. They use there six feet to feel for vibration that they translate into sound.
3. How do ants breath. Ants do not have lungs or gills, they breath through a series of tiny holes on the abdomen. These holes are called spiracles.
4. Strength: Ants can lift around twenty times their own body weight. That’s equivalent to a an average human lifting a small car!!
5. Life expectancy. The common black ant (garden ant) “workers” have a life expectancy of  just 40-60 days, were as the Queen can live for up to twenty years, reproducing year after year to keep the colony functioning with workers ants. The queen comes so nest bound that after fifteen years she can barely walk!! (not surprising after giving birth to so many)
6. Territory: Ants will take on other colonies and actively and fiercely defend their own. Once they conquer a colony they will also devour the larvae (maggots) of the defeated colony!!
7. Ants have a sense of smell that is as good as a dog.
8. Finally,do ants sleep? Well Yes, they actually do, but not how we would understand a typical sleep. Ants something called a cyclical pattern of resting periods which each nest, as group observes. This normally lasts around eight minutes in any twelve hour period. Although the means two rest periods in any given day, only one of the rest periods bears any resemblance to what we would call sleep. Mandible and antennae activity is at a much lower level (usually up to 65 per cent lower) than during the other rest period.

If you have been experiencing problems with ants and cannot sort it out. You may find this article useful “How to control ants” Alternatively give us a call on 01942 872137 or email here