Ants are social insects that live in colonies   more than 12,000 species of ants,found almost everywhere on the planet. The body has three parts: the head, thorax, and gaster . Ants work together to gather food and care for the young. Ants are most closely related to bees and wasps, which all have a narrow waist that segments their bodies. Most of them are black, brown, or red in color.

Behaviour 

Ants use their senses to communicate with colony members by producing pheromones, and antennae are used as special feelers to send messages . Touch messages are transmitted through stridulations, which are sounds and vibrations generated by one ant rubbing its body parts together. These communications can relay such messages as where food is located or where danger is present

Living habitat

The ant colony is separated into groups of individuals having different jobs, such as workers, soldiers, and queens.Workers will take care of the young, or go out to find food. Winged males will die after mating with queens . Winged queens break off their wings after mating. Queens only lay eggs; they can live for several years. while workers only live for a few weeks or months. For some species like reptiles, amphibians, arthropods, birds, and mammals, ants are their prey.

Facts about ants

Ants form colonies with one nest and one queen, but some species form huge groups called "supercolonies," which contain multiple nests and multiple queens. A supercolony consists of billions of ants that together span thousands of miles.

Qualities of ants

1 Ants have human strength.

Ants have the ability to carry 10 to 50 times their own body weight

2 Ant doesn’t have lungs

 Ants are very small in size so they can make respiration and transport oxygen around their bodies

3 Ants are asexual

The queen ants copy themselves to genetically produce daughters, resulting in a colony with no male ants

4  Ants are farmers

Ants will protect aphids from natural predators, and shelter them in their nests from heavy rain showers in order to gain a constant supply of honeydew.

5 Ants have two stomachs.

On one stomach, ants can hold food for their own consumption, and on the other, they can hold food to share with other ants.

Some species of ants have different characteristics 

1 Carpenter ant

Carpenter ants, which are primarily nocturnal insects, often build foraging rails to connect their nest and food source. They are the largest ants in red colors. Carpenters and artisans excavate galleries in wood to create sites. .They will use their strong jaws to remove large quantities of wood. Unlike termites, these ants do not consume the wood. They can travel more than 100 yards to search for food. .The best pesticide to kill this ant is boric acid.

2 Ghost ants

When the ghost ants are small in size, when they run around on a light surface, their abdomen and legs seem to vanish because of their transparancy, and they emit the scent of coconut. These ants do not pose any health threats to humans; they only have the potential to contaminate food. They are spotted in moister areas; they are often seen in shower stalls, washbasins, and sinks . Protein baits are effectively used to remove ghost ants.

3 Odorous ants

They are small species found throughout the United States. These ants prefer to eat sugar. Their nests are found outside under rocks, boards, or within structures; they don't pose any danger to people, but they are unpleasant to smell. Because of their ability to feed on many types of food, they contaminated stored food in the pantry. To get rid of this ant, we can use protein based baits

4 Argentine ants

These ants are an ordinary looking small brown ant. This ant came from Argentina through a shipment of, sugar or coffee. It smells like rotten coconut. This is seen in moist areas like mulch under home foundations. Because of their appetite, they will pose a serious threat to natural areas; they don’t bite or sting humans, but they will rob commercial beehives and be a significant pest in orchards and on large farms. These ants are a horticultural pest. They attack nesting birds, hatching eggs, which can be prevented by using an insecticide barrier.

5 Fire ant or red imported fire ant

The sting is as terrible as being burned by fire, and the poisonous alkaloids carried by sting cause pain and inflammation that may be infectious if scratched on humans. It’s a stunning ant,their bites leave unpleasant welts, and their mounds quickly devastate a nice lawn. They reside in mud and leaf mounds and travel around the colony by digging underground tunnels. They are quite active and aggressive; they will kill other small insects or animals to feed the colony. Intruding animals will also be stung. They can be prevented by baiting and drenching.

Conclusion

Ant populations are stable. Ants often come into conflict with humans because they colonise homes, and some of them—like fire ants—have stingers that can harm people. However, they are extremely important members of the ecosystems in which they’re found, and they help to aerate the soil just like earthworms.