Ants

Information of ants.

Pharaoh ant.

They are light yellowish to reddish, the workers measure from 2.1 mm to 5 mm, they are usually located in homes or any type of building, being so small they can easily be introduced into them , it is very difficult to locate their nests because they are generally in the foundations, on roofs, pipes, etc.

Generally they look for heat and humidity, they feed on a great variety of substances but mainly they look for syrups, fruit juices, honey, jellies, dead insects, meats and blood.

They are very difficult to control, they usually appear suddenly in homes, when they are attacked with different types of insecticides, the colony is divided into subcolonies.

The colonies have hundreds of thousands of workers and several queens, the adult male and female specimens have wings but never fly, the mating takes place inside the anthill throughout the year.

Red Ant.

The workers do not have differentiation in castes, they are very small, about 1.5 mm long, and are light brown to golden brown. The gaster is often more golden. The head is apparently large in relation to the body, which looks shorter as the gaster is tilted down. The antennas have 11 segments, the last two are larger and form a differentiated club. The escapes of the antennas (first segment) are short, they do not exceed the posterior edge of the head. They can be inserted, to protect the antennas, into channels that extend in the head to almost its posterior edge. The eyes are relatively small and only 6 onmatidia are counted in their greatest length. The surface of the thorax is very rough and dull in appearance, it has two long and sharp spines on the back (propodeal or epinotal), which are close at the base and diverge backwards with a slight inward curvature in dorsal view.

They are leisurely walking ants, which follow fairly long long routes of many meters from the anthill to their supply sites. They are generalist ants, which take advantage of a wide variety of foods. They hunt some invertebrates, consume remains of dead animals, steal food from other ants, consume seeds, and other parts of vegetables, but they have a special predilection for nectars of flowers and nectaries, and for the homologous insect myelolates they care for. They are cooperatives in the transport of large food pieces. The collection workers are active 24 hours a day, although they are more active at night.

Apothecary or Ghost ant.

It is a species of the family of formidacids found in humid tropical regions throughout the world. Possibly native to Africa, is found in Florida, Puerto Rico, Cuba and other places in the Americas.

It can be recognized by its dark brown to blackish head in contrast to its abdomen and clear and translucent legs. It measures 1.5 mm in length.

It feeds mainly on nectar and other sweet substances, as well as fats and occasionally live or dead insects. It devours arthropod eggs, so it helps reduce the number of mosquitoes Aedes aegypti transmitters of yellow fever and dengue, of “pitos” Rhodnius prolixus transmitters of Chagas disease and the mite Tetranychus urticae.2 It needs a lot of moisture , so that during the dry seasons they settle in the houses.

They form lines to take the food and take it to the anthill where several queens and thousands of workers live. New colonies can be formed when a queen and some workers migrate away.