- Ants have six legs, each with three joints.
- Nearly 13,000 different species of ants have been classified, and scientists estimate there are more than 20,000 species out there but we just don’t know about all of them yet.
- It is true that ants use their antennae for touching things, but their antennae also contain ants’ sense of smell. The nose knows, eh? Or in this case, the antennae knows.
- Ants typically live between 40 and 60 days.
- Ants sometimes go to war, and on a massive scale. Whole colonies of ants have been witnessed going to battle against other colonies, sometimes leaving millions of dead ants behind.
- The Amazon ant is sometimes called the pirate ant or the slave-taking ant. Why? Because these ants are known to attack other colonies of ants and take captives. These prisoner ants are returned to the home of the Amazon ants and put to work building and making food.
- The largest ant colonies in the world are created by Argentine ants. Their colonies can stretch for hundreds of miles and can be made up of hundreds of different nests of ants.
- Generally the most common ants found in houses are carpenter ants. They like damp wood, which is why they tend to migrate toward houses, especially after rain.
- As far as science has ascertained so far, each colony of ants only has one queen. Scientists have yet to find a colony with more than one queen.
- Some breeds of ants are actually known to herd other insects much in the way humans do cattle. Rarely are these insects killed for food. More often they are used to bring food, often sweets, back to the ants.
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