Six Fun Facts Shared by Experts in Ant Removal in Bartlesville, OK

An ant infestation is never welcome in your home. Not only are they unsettling, but they are often difficult to remove. Ant removal in Bartlesville, OK is a challenging venture because the unique qualities of ants make them a resilient species. If you kill 100 workers, it is likely the queen will simply produce more! Here are six fun facts about ants that will help you appreciate the complexities behind controlling them:

  • Ants have a complex social structure: The ant colony is based on hierarchy and specialized labor. There are three types: the queen, workers and males. Worker ants are always female and they do not have wings. They gather food and build mounds or underground tunnel systems. Male ants exist to mate with the queen, and once that is accomplished, they die shortly thereafter. The queen sustains the colony by laying eggs. Some species also have soldier ants, which defend the colony, gather food and attack competing colonies for food and nesting space.
  • Ants are strong: A worker ant can lift 20 times her body weight. That is the equivalent of an adult human lifting a Ford F150 pickup truck. As you can imagine, this is a big advantage when gathering food or building material for the colony!
  • They create trails: As ants travel, they leave a pheromone trail to signal to other ants where they went. If you leave a bag of sugar exposed or spill soda on your back porch, you will see a swarm before too long. This occurs because the ant that discovered the new food source used pheromones to signal others to join the feast.
  • Ants have unique anatomy: There are two body parts missing with ants: lungs and ears. Rather than hear as we do, ants feel vibrations through the ground using their feet. As for breathing, ants have holes all over their bodies that allow oxygen to enter and carbon dioxide to exit. It is almost like breathing through osmosis!
  • Ants are peaceful—until they are not: Since colonies are highly structured, there is not much room for disputes. Every ant has a job and does it with few questions asked. However, just as with any living creature, conflict is a possibility. Males may fight to mate with the queen, or workers may wrestle over food. When this occurs, the fight is usually to the death. Also, some species take over the nests of competing colonies, kill the queen and steal the eggs. The stolen babies become “slave” ants once they hatch.
  • The queen is it: A queen ant can live for years and have literally millions of babies. Without her, there is no colony. If she dies, the colony only survives a few months because the other females, the workers, cannot reproduce. There is usually not a replacement queen except under very rare circumstances. Most extermination efforts focus on killing the queen, and even if successful, it will take a little while to notice the results.

Excellence Pest Control offers ant removal in Bartlesville, OK and the surrounding areas. Call us today for a free estimate!