Colonies

An individual ant is an insect with great strength and energy. But, ants cannot live as individuals. Their whole existence depends on the way they live as a group. This is why ants are called “social” insects. In order for one ant to survive, it must work together with other ants. Ants must help each other to find food, to take care of their young, and to defend the group from enemies. It takes many ants together, each doing their own special job, to keep the community alive.
A group of ants living together in this way is called a colony. Ant colonies may contain only a few dozen members or more than a million. In a typical colony there are usually three kind of individuals. These are: The Queen, many works ants and few females..

The queen – The reproduction function is carried out by the queen. She lives inside the anthill. The queen is the largest ant in the colony. She is usually several times as large as the workers. Her duty in the colony is to mate and to lay eggs. Her eggs contain all the future workers, males, soldiers, and new queens needed to keep the colony going. She loses the wings after her eggs are fertilized and during all her life she lays eggs.

The males – In the colony they have only one duty – mating with a queen and fertilizing her eggs. They do not work in the colony. They appear only when it is necessary to fertilize a new queen. During this time, thousands of males mate; after the fertilization, the males are not authorized to enter the anthill and generally die quickly.

The workers – Are the ants that we normally see. Tireless workers. They are all females, do not have wings and are sterile; still play all functions within the colony. Among these features include: excavation and cleaning of the nest, gathering food, also called foraging, feeding the larvae and queen (s), feeding other workers, defending the colony, etc. The workers live two to three months and during their whole life work towards the colony.

How do ant colonies get started?

A new colony is always formed by a queen that has hatched in an existing colony. At certain times of the year, the queen of an established colony lays eggs that develop into new young queens and males. After these reproductive ants grow to maturity, they are ready to mate. This usually happens during the warm summer months.

Top left- Winged Female
Top right – Winged Male
Bottom Left – Minor Worker
Bottom Middle – Intermediate Worker
Bottom Right – Major Worker (They are the ones that do most of the damages in woods. It has large mandibles and uses to tearing the woods. Making tunnels to live in).

The nest of carpenter ants

Most of the carpenter ants make their nests in dead wood, but can also make them in trunks of trees; however they do not feed on the wood. They also make their nests inside the houses, taking advantage of flaws in the structure .They can be found in the wooden joints and frames of doors. They can build secondary smaller nests, connected with the principal nest, which is bigger. They can be found inside electronic appliances.

Camponotus atriceps

Where to find Carpenter Ants nest

these ants build their nests mainly in the structure of wood. Hulls of trees, piles of wood, doors, windows, ceilings, cupboards, wooden cabinets and even electronics may shelter them. Despite the fact that they make their nests in wood, they do not feed on this material.

The main nests, with the presence of the queen are generally located in areas outside of houses, as in trees and in the garden. Nests parallels, linked to the main nest sites usually occur inside the houses, mainly associated with structures of wood as closets, ceilings, doors, windows and rodapés.

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