Ants are insect species. There are more than 12,000 species of ants. They vary in length from 2 to 25 millimeters! Additionally, they are typically brown, yellow, red, or black.
Ants are invertebrates, meaning that they lack a backbone. Additionally, they are omnivores, meaning they consume both plants and other animals. Let’s learn some cool ant facts for kids today.
Ant Facts for Kids 1-9
1. Ants leave behind a pheromone when looking for food, so they can determine where they have been.
2. Generally, when ants battle, they do so till death.
3. Queen ants possess wings that they shed when establishing a new nest.
4. Insects do not possess lungs. Oxygen enters their bodies through microscopic pores located throughout their bodies, while carbon dioxide exits through the same pores.
5. When a colony loses its queen, it can only live for a few months.
6. They use vibrations to forage for food and send alarm signals because they lack hearing.
7. They have two stomachs, one for storing food and one for consuming it.
8. Some ants can swim, as they can float for extended durations and breathe underwater.
9. Insects are as ancient as dinosaurs!
Ant Facts for Kids 10-18
10. Ants may carry 20 to 100 times their body weight over their heads, depending on the species. If a second-grader had the strength of an ant, she could lift a car!
11. Some queen ants can live for decades and produce millions of offspring!
12. Ants have no ears. Ants “hear” through their feet by sensing vibrations in the ground.
13. Queens are replaced seldom, and workers are unable to reproduce.
14. Ants are gregarious, colony-dwelling insects.
15. Ants are distinguished by their elbowed antennae and nodular body shape.
16. There are ants on all continents except Antarctica.
17. Colonies of ants can be as tiny as a few hundred individuals, while big colonies might contain millions.
18. Colonies of ants are regarded as superorganisms.
Ant Facts 19-27
19. Ants can range in size from 0.03 inches to 2 inches.
20. Ants are omnivores, consuming both plant and animal stuff in their diet. Some kinds of ants are thought to be carnivorous.
21. The global population of ants is estimated to be between one and ten quadrillions.
22. Based on the projected global ant population, there are between 150,000 and 1.5 million ants for every human.
23. Some locations have so many ants that they account for almost 25 percent of the region’s terrestrial animal biomass.
24. Ants use touch, sound, vibrations, and pheromones to communicate.
25. A queen ant is a fertile female who lays eggs for the colony. Some colonies may have multiple queens.
26. A worker ant is a sterile female ant that performs several activities, such as foraging and digging, for the colony.
27. A drone ant is a fertile male ant capable of fertilizing freshly born queens before they take flight and start new colonies.
Ant Facts 28-36
28. Two ant colonies fighting is usually called a colony war. Ironically, the proximity of several ant colonies does not necessarily result in an ant colony war. However, when they do occur, each colony loses a large number of members on both sides, and one is typically wiped out entirely.
29. Ants possess the longest lifespan of any insect. The queen of western harvester ants can live up to 30 years.
30. Titanomyrma giganteum was the largest ant that ever roamed our world. The queen could reach a length of 2.4 inches and had a wing span of around 5.9 inches.
31. Ant-keeping is a hobby in which ants are kept as pets.
32. Myrmecology is the scientific study of ants, and a myrmecologist is someone who studies ants.
33. In exchange for their sugary sap, ants may herd and nurture other insects. They even transport insects that feed on plant sap from one plant to another. In exchange for food, ants also defend particular plants (called myrmecophytes).
34. Certain ant species invade and take over the nests of other ant species. The survivors are then enslaved to do their bidding. Typically, the hostile queen will kill the target queen, leaving the worker ants to raise the young of the conquerors.
35. The entire biomass of all ants on Earth is approximately equivalent to the total biomass of all humans. Approximately 3.5 million ants inhabit a single acre of the Amazon rainforest.
36. The colony, also known as a formicary, consists of one or more egg-laying queens and a large number of female “worker” ants that care for her, construct and maintain the nest, search for food, and care for the young.