Photographs Of Aphids

Aphids are in the Order Homoptera, Family Aphididae

Aphid is a common name for a group of insects that are sometimes called plant lice or greenflies. Aphids are found all over the world as parasites on roots, leaves and the stems of plants, and frequently do great damage.

Aphids have mouth parts that are made for piercing and sucking plants, and consist of four long, sharp stylets inside a proboscis (sheath). They also have two projecting cornicles, or horn-shaped tubes at the posterior end of the body, that emit a waxy secretion. Their legs are long and slender, but they are not adapted to running.

Aphids don't usually wander far from their birthplace, except when the females migrate in the spring and fall. Eggs hatch in the spring, producing wingless females that reproduce parthenogeneticlly (without fertilization from males.) The eggs develop so quickly that they sometimes hatch before they are laid and living females are born. After several generations of wingless females are produced, winged females are produced which migrate to other plants where they produce more wingless females by asexual reproduction. Toward the end of summer, winged males and females are produced. They migrate to a new plant, mating occurs and overwintering eggs are laid.

Rosy Aphids

You can tell aphids are around by marks, wrinkles or abnormalities on the infested plant. Aphids that eat plants such as turnips, cabbages, potatoes, beans, apples, pears and larch have been the cause of widespread damage. In some cases the aphids cause damage directly and in other cases they transmit plant viruses that cause the damage.

Aphids emit a sweet glutinous substance from their anus called honeydew, which attracts ants and other insects. Ants may hide aphids and protect them from predators. Insects including ladybird beetles, parasite wasps and hover-fly larvae destroy great numbers of aphids. Birds and spiders also consume large quantities of aphids.

Aphids Facts

Aphids -- Order Hemoptera, Superfamily Aphidoidea

Aphids are tiny, pear-shaped insects that suck juices from plants. The larger species are about half the size of a sesame seed, although several species are even larger.



Aphids, or plant lice, are small, soft-bodied, pear shaped insects which are commonly found on nearly all indoor and outdoor plants, as well as vegetables, field crops, and fruit trees. There are hundreds of different species of aphids. Some of them feed only one host plant, while others will feed on many other plants.

Most aphids are about 1/10 inch long, and athough most of them are green or black, they may be gray, brown, pink, red, yellow, or lavender. A characteristic common to all aphids is the presence of two tubes, called cornicles, on the back ends of their bodies, sort of like "tailpipes". The cornicles secrete substances that help protect them from predators. In some species the tubes are quite long, while in others they are very short and difficult to see.



Aphids feed in clusters, or large groups, and usually prefer new, succulent shoots or young leaves. Some species, known as woolly aphids, are covered with white, waxy filaments which they produce from special glands. You will usually find aphids clustered on leaves, needles, stems, and at the base of blossoms.

Damage symptoms caused by aphids include foliage that is distorted, crinkled, rolled, yellowed, swollen, or stunted. For larger trees, if you feel it is necessary to manage aphids because of excessive "honeydew" production, or if they are a gall-forming species, the systemic insecticide imidacloprid can be applied as a soil drench or granules applied over the tree root zone, then watered in so roots can absorb the insecticide.

Protection of naturally occurring beneficial insects, such as lady beetles (ladybugs) and green lacewings is very important in keeping aphid populations under control, but the purchase and release of these beneficial insects is often not effective because they do not remain in the area after they are released.

Ants often protect aphids from their natural enemies, and in turn, eat the honeydew produced by the aphids. This allows aphid populations to expand rapidly. If you find ants on ornamentals in your yard, this is probably why they are there. Aphids attack both deciduous and evergreen trees, as well as your bedding plants. For example Spruce Gall is caused by the larval stage of the aphid. On deciduous trees and bedding plants look for the honeydew, presence of ants, and on the evergreens the new growth will have brown tip die back.

Aphids have unusual and complex life cycles which allow them to build up tremendous populations in very short periods of time. Most aphids overwinter, or spend the winter, as fertilized eggs glued to stems or other parts of plants. Nymphs which hatch from these eggs become wingless females known as stem mothers. There are no males present at this time. Stem mothers reproduce without mating, and their eggs are held within their bodies until they hatch so that young are born alive. All offspring are females which soon mature and begin to reproduce in the same way. This pattern continues for as long as conditions are favorable.

Periodically, some or all of the young develop wings and migrate to other plants. Some species always settle on the same type of plant; others have one or more alternate hosts. When the days get shorter in the fall and there are cooler temperatures, a generation appears which includes both males and females. After mating, these females lay the fertilized eggs which overwinter and eventually hatch into stem mothers the following spring.

Natural enemies play a very important part in controlling aphid populations. Lady beetles, lacewings, damsel bugs, flower fly maggots, certain parasitic wasps, birds, and fungal diseases all attack aphids. Without them, aphids would be much more destructive to plantlife.

A Bug's Life

This story of an oppressed ant colony is portrayed by breathtaking computer animation. The same people who brought us Toy Story, Pixar Studios via Disney are responsible for this insect epic.

There's no doubting the visual delight of this good verses evil tale. It is the stunning effects that keep your eyes glued to the screen. The hero of the story, Flik, is an unusual little ant who wants to make a difference. His inventions however cause more harm than good.

The villains are the grasshoppers who through the intimidatory tactics of Hopper, their leader, demand an offering of food every year.

Flik of course is responsible for all the food falling into the stream, something which makes the grasshoppers mad. The ants now have to replace the offering by the time the last leaf falls.

Flik goes on a mission to find some mean bugs in the big city. These, he hopes, will fight off the grasshoppers. What he comes back with is some washed out circus bugs.

They hatch a grand plan to scare off the grasshoppers. This plan seems to be working but unfortunately it goes horribly wrong. It all works out in the end however.

This movie certainly has its funny moments. It is a movie that the whole family can enjoy together.

The full story of a bug's life

Bugs

Picture of large milkweed bugs

One of the main identifying features of bugs is their sharp, needle-like mouthparts, which they are expert at using to suck the juices from other animals or from plants. Bugs are grouped in the order Hemiptera and range in size from tiny aphids, only a fraction of an inch2 to 3mm) long, to giant water bugs of the family Belostomatidae, some of which can grow to 4.5inches (11cm).


Picture of aphid

The best known bugs are probably the aphids (Family Aphididae) -- a huge numbers of them may be found on garden plants such as roses and beans. An aphid feeds by piercing a plant's stem and sucking out the juice inside. Thousands of them all feeding together can seriously damage plants and even kill them, so aphids are considered serious pests by farmers.



Aphids are capable of massive population explosions. These happen because the females give birth to baby aphids that are already carrying young of their own. The babies can give birth just ten days after they themselves are born.

Another member of the order Hemiptera is the pond skater (family Gerridae), which has long, slender legs and can walk on the surface of water.


Picture of pond skater

As their group name suggests, the back swimmers (family Notonectidae) spend most of their lives upside down in ponds, while the adult froghoppers (family Cercopidae) are excellent jumpers. The nymphs of froghoppers live on plants in the frothy substance called cuckoo spit.


Picture Of Froghoppers

The cicadas (family Cicadidae) are large bugs of the world's warmer regions, where the male's shrill song is a familiar summer sound. The most surprising thing about the cicada's song is that it doesn't come from its mouth, but from vibrating drumlike areas on its body.



This fascinating insect is more often heard than seen, in fact. Cicadas spend their nymph stage underground, living there for several years, feeding on roots. They climb up into trees before emerging as adults.

Information About Wasp

A wasp is any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is not a bee or an ant. Less familiar, the suborder Symphyta includes the sawflies and wood wasps, which differ from the Apocrita by having a broad connection between the thorax and abdomen. Also, Symphyta larvae are mostly herbivorous and "caterpillarlike", whereas the Apocrita are largely predatory or parasitic.


Appearance: Variety of shapes and colors; can be distinguished from bees by their smooth, rather than hairy, bodies; one-half inch to three-fourths inch long.

The following characteristics are present in most wasps:

• Two pairs of wings (exception: female Mutillidae)
• A stinger (in females)
• Few or no hairs (in contrast to bees); exception: Mutillidae
• Predators or parasitoids, mostly on other insects; some (e.g. Pompilidae) specialize in spiders

Wasps are critically important in natural biocontrol. There is a wasp species that is predator or parasite upon almost every pest insect species. Wasps are also increasingly used in agricultural pest control.
Habits: Exhibit predatory and scavenging behavior; some species are solitary, while others live in colonies which may number thousands of individuals.

Diet: Primarily protein, such as spiders, soft-bodied insects and small animals.

Reproduction: Social wasps begin a nest with one queen laying all eggs for colony; if a queen dies, a worker can take over egg-laying function until colony produces new queen.

Nesting Habits: Very protective of their nests; will defend against invaders with painful stings.
Social wasps build papery nests of masticated, or chewed up, fibers. The nests of yellow jackets and hornets are made up of several layers of cells enclosed in a globular outer covering. Paper wasps build open, flat nests of a single comb. The nest is begun by the queen wasp, which alone survives the winter. The first eggs develop into workers, which continue the nest building and largely take over the care of the young. During a season a paper wasp nest may become up to 20 cm (8 in) in diameter and house several hundred wasps. Several thousand yellow jackets may exist in one community.

The nesting habits of the solitary wasps are extremely diverse. The potter wasps build vaselike cells of clay attached to the twig of a tree. The mud daubers construct mud cells in sheltered places; the digger wasps burrow into the soil and sometimes in decaying wood. Solitary wasps generally provide the cells with spiders, caterpillars, or flies stung through the nerve center and thus rendered helpless. In this way, the young insects are provided with fresh food. The digger wasp taps down the earth with pebbles to fill the mouth of its burrow.

Honey Bee Facts

Honey bees(Apis mellifera) live in large family groups called colonies.

Honey bees tended by beekeepers live in wood boxes called hives. Some well-managed hives in bee yards contain up to 80,000 individual bees.

The central structure of the colony is the wax comb. It is made up of six-sided, white wax chambers or cells. The cells vary in size according to the purpose.



Smaller chambers are for raising female worker bees, larger ones are for raising male drones. Queen chambers are the largest.

The comb is made of beeswax, a substance secreted from worker bee abdominal glands. The wax is secreted as tiny flakes, which are then chewed and molded into cells.

Other construction in and around the hive is done with propolis, a sticky substance bees manufacture from tree and plant resin.




The comb contains the stored honey and is home for the immature bees.

Honey bees usually build their comb in a protected area or cavity with an access hole the size of a pencil eraser or larger.

Wild (feral) honey bees nest in enclosed areas such as a hole in a tree if possible, but sometimes they will construct comb out in the open on a thick branch of a tree or under rock outcroppings. The elaborate exposed combs full of amber-colored honey they construct can be very beautiful.


Bee hives in the bee yard : The two larger boxes at the bottom of each hive are called the hive bodies. This is where the bees live, raise their young and store their winter supply of honey. The smaller 3 boxes on top of the hive bodies are where the bees store honey that is removed at the end of the summer to be bottled by the beekeeper.

When the colony starts to become too crowded, some of the bees split off to form a new colony. This is called swarming. First the eggs for new queens are laid in their special larger cells. "Swarming" occurs when part of the colony breaks off with the old queen and flies off looking for another place to call home.


The bees engorge themselves on their honey reserves before leaving so as to have sufficient energy to make it to a new location. There can be multiple swarms from one hive, since new queens can also emerge and fly off with part of the worker force.

Beautiful Pictures Of Bees

Bees make up a superfamily known as the Apoidea. Cellophane bees make up the family
Colletidae, mining bees make up the family Andrenidae, sweat bees make up the family Halictidae, the leafcutter and mason bees and their relatives make up the family Megachilidae, the digger bees make up the family Anthophoridae, and honey bees and their relatives make up the family Apidae.

There are 11 families of bees. Scientists distinguish between them by subtle differences in wing veins and by the fine structure of the mouthparts and other microscopic characteristics. However, the bees in each family have other interesting descriptive features, including their size, nesting and foraging behaviors, and easy-to-see body features such as body hair, the length of the tongue, and the form of the pollen-carrying structure.


Parasitic, or cuckoo, bees are those that do not forage or make nests themselves but use the nests and food of other species of bees to provide for their parasitic young. Parasitic bees are of two types: cleptoparasitic bees and social parasites. Cleptoparasitic bees invade the nests of solitary bees, hide their eggs in the brood chambers before the hosts lay theirs, and close the chambers. The young of the parasitic bees then feed on the food that was stored in the chamber by the host female. The eggs or young larvae of the host bee are killed either by the parasitic female or by her larvae. Social parasites are bees that kill the resident queen, lay their own eggs in the host's cells, and then force the host's workers to raise the young parasitic bees. Females of parasitic bees lack such special features as pollen baskets or pollen brushes since they do not forage for food for their young.



The most familiar bees are the honey bees and their close relatives. In this family are bees that make intricate nests and live in complex societies. The pollen-carrying structure in these bees is a smooth, bristle-surrounded area on one segment of the hind leg. This structure is known as a pollen basket, or corbicula. This group is divided into four tribes: the orchid bees, the bumble bees, the stingless bees, and the honey bees.



Some bees are communal. They are like solitary bees except that several females of the same generation use the same nest, each making her own cells for housing her eggs, larvae, and pupae. A few kinds of bees are semisocial-they live in small colonies of two to seven bees of the same generation, one of which is the queen, or principal egg layer; the others are worker bees. About 1000 species of bees live in small colonies consisting of a queen and a few daughter workers. In these colonies, the differences in appearance and behavior between workers and queens are scarcely distinguishable. Such species, called primitively eusocial, form temporary colonies that die out in autumn, and only the fertilized queens survive the winter. Bumble bees are familiar examples.

Types Of Bees

Workers are females which are not fully and developed sexually. They do the work of the colony a maintain it in good condition. Workers have special structures and organs which are associated with the duties they perform.

There are many different species of bees. Most bees are solitary, but some are social. These live together inn colonies with a division of labor among the individuals.

The habit of visiting flowers makes all bees important as pollinating agents. All bees gather nectar and pollen from flowers, but only a few of the social bees store the nectar as honey. Of the bees that store honey, there are even fewer species that store it in sufficient quantity to make the effort of harvesting the honey worthwhile.

Although some "stingless" bees are robbed of their honey in tropical regions, bees of the genus Apis, the true honey bees, are the major producers of honey and other hive products. Apis mellifera, the western hive bee, has been introduced into most regions of the world for use in beekeeping.

The queen is the only female that is completely developed sexually. This is a result of a total diet of royal jelly during a developmental period. She is distinguished by her long, slender appearance, due to the full development of the ovaries in her abdomen. She has a sting without barbs. In the colony, she is found in the area of the brood nest.

Stingless Bees

In tropical regions, some species of stingless bees-- notably Trigona and Melipona- are robbed of their honey. All of these bees build their nests inside cavities. Even though these bees do not sting, they defend their colony by biting the intruder. Some secrete irritating substances along with the bite.

The brood comb of stingless bees is one cell thick and usually horizontal. These bees store honey in thimble-sized wax honey pots placed around the brood area of the nest. In some areas, these stingless bees are kept in gourds, clay pots, or hollowed logs. Honey is harvested by opening the nest cavity and removing the honey pots. The yield is very low, and marketing it is worthwhile only on a local level. Such honey is often highly prized locally for medicinal use.

Drones, the males of the colony, are produced from unfertilized eggs. (The queen can control whether or not the egg is fertilized as she lays it.) The body of the drone is larger than that of the worker or queen. The eyes are large and cover practically the whole head. The end of the abdomen is blunt and is covered with a tuft of small hairs. Drones cannot sting. As the sting is a modified structure of the female genitalia, drones do not have stings. They also do not have any of the structures necessary to collect nectar and pollen. A strong colony can have about 300 drones.

Apis : The True Honey Bee

There are four species in the bee genus Apis-- three which are native to Asia and one which is native to the Euro-African region. All of these are similar in appearance, though there are size and color differences. All build vertical combs that are two cells thick.

The giant or rock honey bee (Apis dorsata) and the little honey bee (A. florea) are found in Asia. Both of these bees build a single-comb, exposed nest. Nests are often seen hanging from branches of trees, roofs, or ceilings. The adult bees hang in curtains around the nest to control nest conditions. Brood and honey stores are in the same comb - the brood in the lower section and the honey in the upper section.

In some areas, methods have been devised for removing the honey section of the comb and reattaching the brood area; thus bee-having is practiced with these bees. The yields are often high enough (especially with A. dorsata) to make the effort well worthwhile for the farmer.

No methods of keeping either of these bees are known which are better than those currently practiced. The behavior of both species is unpredictable, and they will not live inside a hive. The giant honey bee is especially defensive of its nest. Therefore, there is little potential for development in the management of either species, though there is often potential for improving the quality of the honey by using more care in processing.

Two other species of Apis (mellifera and cerana) normally build multi-comb nests in enclosed cavities. These bees can be kept in hives, and methods have been devised to allow for a more rational utilization of their potential. It is with these two species that a potential for beekeeping development exists.

The western hive bee (Apis mellifera) is native to western Asia, Europe, and A-Africa. There is tremendous variation in this bee across its range, and at least twenty different sub-species or "races" are recognized, broadly divided into European and African groups. Several races of this bee are considered especially desirable for beekeeping.

Read More - More Information about bees

Life Cycle Of Bees

Because bees are insects they have four stages to their life cycle. The stages are, egg, larva, pupa and adult.

Queen Bee and her egg

The life cycle process is called metamorphosis, which means that the form of the bee changes from the larva to the adult. Passing through the immature stages takes 21 days for worker bees.


The Larvae

On the first day, the queen bee lays a single egg in each cell of the comb. The egg generally hatches into a larva on the fourth day. The larva is a legless grub that resembles a tiny white sausage. The larva is fed a mixture of pollen and nectar called beebread.


The Pupae

On the ninth day the cell is capped with wax and the larva transforms into the pupa. The pupa doesn't eat.

Immature bees within the comb

On day 21, the new adult worker bee emerges.

Facts About Bees

Bees belong to the third largest insect order which also includes wasps and ants. Together, these creatures pollinate crops, turn over the soil more effectively than earthworms, and, in the case of the bee, furnish food in the form of honey. Even more importantly, some members of this order prey on other insects -- the single most important factor in keeping the earth's insect population in check.

The insect order Hymenoptera includes sawflies, wasps, bees and ants. The name Hymenoptera means 'membrane wings'. Their adults have two pair of membranous wings with the forewings lager than the hind wings. The main defining characteristic of Hymenoptera is that the front and hind wings are held together by a series of little hooks called hamuli. There are two suborders of Hymenoptera, the Symphyta (sawflies) and the Apocryta (wasps, bees and ants)

The female insects have strings to inject venom to their enemy where the string is their modified ovipositor. Most insects in this order have a waist that separates the thorax and abdomen. On their head they have two large compound eyes and mandibulate mouthparts. Their antenna is medium in length and usually strongly elbowed.

Most larvae in this order are maggot-like and with no legs. However, the Sawflies larvae look like caterpillars and sometimes mistaken as butterflies or moths larvae. The insects in this order developed in complete metamorphosis.

The bee's eyes, like those of other insects, differ greatly from human eyes. They consist of a pair of compound eyes made up of numerous six-sided facets (28,000 in some dragonflies, 4,000 in house flies) plus three simple eyes. Despite this, their vision is believed to be sharp only for a distance of about 1 m. Bees, however, are capable of seeing ultraviolet light, which is invisible to humans. The bee is capable of navigating, even on a cloudy day, by cloud-penetrating ultraviolet light. Honey bees also use the sun as a reference point to communicate to other bees the angle of flight to be followed to arrive at newly discovered nectar-bearing flowers.

If you get stung by a honeybee, have an adult immediately remove the stinger by scraping the area with a fingernail, credit card or other sharp-edged tool (the honeybee's stinger has little hooks on it to keep it in your skin!). Avoid using tweezers, since squeezing the stinger can actually pump more irritating venom (poison from the attached venom sac at the end of the stinger) into the skin. Get the stinger out as quickly as possible to lessen the amount of venom that gets into the skin and to lessen the reaction, which usually includes swelling, redness, pain and itch. Apply ice to reduce the swelling and have an adult apply a topical anesthetic, to quickly reduce the pain and itch. The swelling will go away if the area is left alone - so don't scratch it!

Bees

The insects most beneficial to humans are found in the large insect order Hymenoptera. Not only are the bees and many of their relatives pollinators of flowering plants, including fruits and vegetables, but thousands of species of small wasps are parasites of other arthropods including pest insects. Without these parasites that limit the growth of insect populations, pests would overtake most crops.


Anatomy Of The Bee

Bees are four-winged, flower-feeding insects. They have enlarged hind feet, branched or feathered body hairs, and generally a stinger. Honeybees and bumblebees are the most common. Bumblebees are larger and stronger than honeybees. Bees are beneficial insects because they produce honey and pollinate crops.

Honeybees (or hive bees) are in the animalia kingdom, the arthropoda phylum, the insecta class, the hymenoptera order and the apoidea family. Beekeepers are sometimes called apiarists. Honeybees and bumblebees (apidae subfamily) are social bees and live in colonies. Solitary bees make their own small family nests.

There are 10,0000 - 20,000 species of bee including many wasplike and flylike bees. Most bees are small from 2 mm (.08 inches) long to 4 cm (1.6 inches) long. Bees and wasps are closely related. The main difference is that bees provide their young with pollen and honey, while wasps eat animal food, insects, or spiders. In addition, wasps have unbranched hairs.

Honeybees live in hives or colonies. A small hive contains about 20,000 bees, while some larger hives may have over 100,000 bees. Hives include one queen, hundreds of drones, and thousands of worker bees. The worker bees are female, but they do not breed. The queen bee is female and creates all the babies for the hive. The drone bees are male and do not have stingers.

Bees communicate with each other about food sources using dances. The sounds from the movement of the bees is picked up by the tiny hairs on the bee's head. Bees use the sun in navigation.

The honeybee's hive has cells made of wax. This is where the queen bee lays her eggs. She can lay 1500 eggs in one day. When the larvae hatch, they are fed by the worker bees. The workers collect pollen and nectar from flowers. The pollen is used as a protein source and the nectar is an energy source. Some of the pollen lands on the pistils of the flower and results in cross-pollination. This is important for some crops and flowers. The relationship between the plant and the insect is called symbiosis.

Bees turn the nectar into honey. Workers must visit over four thousand flowers to make just a tablespoon of honey. Beekeepers must be very careful when they remove honey from the hive. They try not to hurt the bees. The beekeepers give sugar syrup to the bees to replace the honey that they take.

The "killer bee" is actually a type of African honeybee. In 1957, it was accidentally released in Brazil during a science experiment. It began to move north and reached Mexico in the 1980s. It can now be found in the southwestern US. These bees react very quickly, attack in large numbers, and swarm for long periods of time.

Carpenter Ants

Carpenter Ants have a narrow waist like wasps and an elbow bend in the middle of their antennae. Their colour is often black, sometimes mixed with red or all red. They look like regular ants, just bigger. They can range in size from ¼ inch to ½ inch for workers and up to 1 inch for queens and males. During mating, which takes place during the hot summer month, the queen and males have two wings. If your critters do not have a narrow waist and no elbow bend in their antennae they are not ants but could be termites. You will want to take action quickly.

Carpenter Ant at Work
Carpenter Ants are a beneficial insect species in nature. They become a problem when they build a nest in the house and can cause damage to a wood structure over time. They are not as destructive as termites as they excavate the wood for nesting purposes, but do not eat it. One indicator of a carpenter ant presence is "frass", little mounds of small wood particles somewhere in or around the house.


Signs of Carpenter Ant Infestation

• You see large ants (up to ½ inch) in your home in consistently high numbers.
• You hear a crackling, chewing noise from behind the walls, most likely in the middle of the night. That noise is not that loud. If it is and you are camping, you'd probably wish it were just ants, but it is more likely to be a bear.
• You see large (1 inch) ants with wings flying around in your house. Those are young ant queens or males trying to establish a colony.
• You have ants inside your home even so it's cold outside and vegetation and critters are hibernating outdoors.
• You see little piles of sawdust ('frass') in your home; these are remnants from the excavation activities of the ant, as they do not eat the wood.

Why Pesticide Don't Work
Carpenter ants are difficult to eradicate with pesticides. Only a small percentage is out foraging at any given time, they are strong and fairly intelligent and there can be lots of them. These ants are nocturnal and you will see more in the evening. Their activity depends a lot on temperature, so you see many during the hot summer and less during cooler weather.
Nocturnal Construction
If you hear a chewing, crackling noise in the middle of the night that might be the ants putting on the addition to their nest. They will not damage a house as quickly as termites, but can do substantial damage to a wood structure over a number of years. While you do not need to panic, you do not want to ignore them either. And probably can't. If the nest is in the house, they will not go away by themselves, unless it's a cottage and the structure freezes in the wintertime. In this case they usually cannot proliferate. It's not recommended to do this with a house as water pipes can burst and frost damage can happen. There are better ways of dealing with ants.

Life Cycle Of Ant

The life cycle of the ant consists of four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Fertilized eggs produce female ants (queens, workers, or soldiers); unfertilized eggs produce male ants.

Egg: Ant eggs are oval shaped and tiny (they are on the order of 1 mm long, but the queen's egg is many times larger).

Larva: The worm-like larvae have no eyes and no legs; they eat food regurgitated by adult ants. The larvae molt (shed their skin) many times as they increase in size.

Pupa: After reaching a certain size, the larva spins a silk-like cocoon around itself (against a solid object, like the wall of the chamber) and pupates. During this time the body metamorphoses (changes) into its adult form.

Adult: The pupa emerges as an adult.

The entire life cycle usually lasts from 6 to 10 weeks. Some queens can live over 15 years, and some workers can live for up to 7 years.

An ant colony starts in general with a queen (alate reproductive female) that has just landed from the nuptial flight in which she has been inseminated by one or more males, has lost her wings and has found a protected place or has excavated a chamber.

In this protected place (the nest, that does not necessarily have to be constructed, but can be a natural chamber under a rock, for instance) the queen starts to lay eggs, from which after a certain period, emerge the larvae. The queen may search for food outside the nest or regurgitate her liquefied wing musculature (she will never fly again). In this initial period the queen is respondible for all colony tasks, not only feeding the larvae and herself, but also for the maintenance of the nest and for colony defense. The larval phase is when the ants grow up, so they have to be constantly fed. The queen may search for food outside the nest or regurgitate her liquefied musculature related to the wings, as she will never fly again. In this initial period the queen is responsible for all colony tasks, not only feeding the larvae and herself, but also the maintenance of the nest and colony defense. The larval phase is when the ants grow, so they have to be constantly fed.

After the eclosion of the first workers the queen does not perform most behaviors necessary to nest maintenance and colony development anylonger, and restricts herself only to egg laying and autogrooming, while the workers do all other tasks, including the feeding of the queen. The colony passes through a growing phase, not only in population but also in nest size and the area over which the workers forage for food.

The colony passes through a growing phase, not only in population but also in nest size and the area over which the workers forage for food. This phase may take some years and some species live in colonies with up to millions of individuals living together at a certain time.

After the colony growing period, which varies among species, but in general some years, the colony produces its first generation of sexuals. In general the sexuals produced by colonies of a given region will fly on the same day and at the same time, enhancing their chance to meet in the nuptial flight and to close the cycle.

With the death of the colony queen, in general the colony is able to survive just a few months, as queens are seldom replaced in ants and the workers are not able to reproduce.

Enchanted Learning - Ants : printouts

Interesting Facts About Ants

Picture showing Worker of Polyergus rufescens with Formica cunicularia

Like all insects, ants have six legs. Each leg has three joints. The legs of the ant are very strong so they can run very quickly. If a man could run as fast for his size as an ant can, he could run as fast as a racehorse. Ants can lift 20 times their own body weight. An ant brain has about 250 000 brain cells. A human brain has 10,000 million so a colony of 40,000 ants has collectively the same size brain as a human.


Picture showing life cycle of ants

The average life expectancy of an ant is 45-60 days. Ants use their antenae not only for touch, but also for their sense of smell. The head of the ant has a pair of large, strong jaws. The jaws open and shut sideways like a pair of scissors. Adult ants cannot chew and swallow solid food. Instead they swallow the juice which they squeeze from pieces of food. They throw away the dry part that is left over. The ant has two eyes, each eye is made of many smaller eyes.
They have compound eyes. The abdomen of the ant contains two stomachs. One stomach holds the food for itself and second stomach is for food to be shared with other ants. Like all insects, the outside of their body is covered with a hard armour this is called the exoskeleton. Ants have four distinct growing stages, the egg, larva, pupa and the adult. Biologists classify ants as a special group of wasps. (Hymenoptera Formicidae) There are over 10000 known species of ants. Each ant colony has at least one or more queens.

The job of the queen is to lay eggs which the worker ants look after. Worker ants are sterile, they look for food, look after the young, and defend the nest from unwanted visitors. Ants are clean and tidy insects. Some worker ants are given the job of taking the rubbish from the nest and putting it outside in a special rubbish dump! Each colony of ants has its own smell. In this way, intruders can be recognized immediately. Many ants such as the common Red species have a sting which they use to defend their nest.

The common Black Ants and Wood Ants have no sting, but they can squirt a spray of formic acid. Some birds put ants in their feathers because the ants squirt formic acid which gets rid of the parasites. The Slave-Maker Ant (Polyergus Rufescens) raids the nests of other ants and steals their pupae. When these new ants hatch,they work as slaves within the colony. The worker ants keep the eggs and larvae in different groups according to ages.


At night the worker ants move the eggs and larvae deep into the nest to protect them from the cold. During the daytime, the worker ants move the eggs and larvae of the colony to the top of the nest so that they can be warmer. If a worker ant has found a good source for food, it leaves a trail of scent so that the other ants in the colony can find the food. Army Ants are nomadic and they are always moving. They carry their larvae and their eggs with them in a long column.


The Army Ant (Ecitron Burchelli) of South America, can have as many as 700,000 members in its colony. The Leaf Cutter Ants are farmers. They cut out pieces of leaves which they take back to their nests. They chew them into a pulp and a special fungus grows it. Ants cannot digest leaves because they cannot digest cellulose. Many people think ants are a pest but I like them. To stop them coming into my kitchen I put some sugar outside. They they have so much to eat that they are not interested in coming into my kitchen.

Ants

Ants have been living on the Earth for more than 100 million years and can be found almost anywhere on the planet. It is estimated that there are about 20,000 different species of ants. For this reason ants have been called Earth's most successful species.

Ants build many different types of homes. Many ants build simple little mounds out of dirt or sand. Other ants use small sticks mixed with dirt and sand to make a stronger mound that offers protection from rain. Western Harvester ants make a small mound on top, but then tunnel up to 15 feet straight down to hibernate during winter. Ant mounds consist of many chambers connected by tunnels. Different chambers are used for nurseries, food storage, and resting places for the worker ants. Some ants live in wood like termites. Army ants don't make a home at all but travel in large groups searching for food.

Sociology: Ants are social insects, which means they live in large colonies or groups. Some colonies consist of millions of ants. There are three types of ants in each species, the queen, the sterile female workers, and males. The male ants only serve one purpose, to mate with future queen ants and do not live very long. The queen grows to adulthood, mates, and then spends the rest of her life laying eggs. A colony may have only one queen, or there may be many queens depending on the species. Ants go through four stages of development: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.

Anatomy: Ants have three main parts. The head, the trunk(middle section), and the rear or metasoma. All six legs are attached to the trunk. The head consists of the jaws, eyes, and antennae. The eyes of ants are made up of many lenses enabling them to see movement very well. The antennae are special organs of smell, touch, taste, and hearing. The metasoma contains the stomach and rectum. Many species of ants have poison sacks and/or stingers in the end of the metasoma for defense against their many predators.

Organs: Ants do not have lungs. Oxygen enters through tiny holes all over the body and Carbon Dioxide leaves through the same holes. There are no blood vessels. The heart is a long tube that pumps colorless blood from the head back to the rear and then back up to the head again. The blood kind of coats the insides of the ants and is then sucked into the tube and pumped up to the head again. The nervous system of ants consists of a long nerve cord that also runs from head to rear with branches leading to the parts of the body, kind of like a human spinal cord.

Communication: If you watch ants for any length of time you will see that they really do communicate with each other and very effectively too. Ants communicate by touching each other with their antennae. Ants also use chemicals called pheromones to leave scent trails for other ants to follow.

Types Of Ants

Picture of a carpenter ant

A person who studies ants is called a myremecologist. There are more ants in the world than any other kind of insect. People and ants have the same biomass. That means that if you put all the ants in the world together, they would weigh as much as all the people in the world.

Ants are one of the oldest kind of living creatures in the world. Ants today are not much different from ants that lived 60 million years ago. Ants are the strongest creatures in relation to their size. They can carry things 50 times their body weight. If people could do that, they could each lift a car.

Ants are the longest living insect. Workers usually live for one year, but some can live for five years. Some queen ants can live for twenty years. We often tell different kinds of ants apart by their colors. Ants can be brown, yellow, red, or black.

Which are the most common? Black.

Some important types of ants:

Formica ants: They suck on the juices from insects that they kill.

Cornfield ants: They eat the honeydew that they milk from aphids.

Carpenter ants: They eat the sweet juices from insects and plants, and make their nests in rotting wood.

Thief ants: They eat sweet foods left lying around.

Leaf cutting ants: They cut leaves to make underground gardens. Then they grow mushrooms in their gardens for food.

Army ants: They travel in very large groups and eat all the insects in their path.

Harvester ants: They usually eat seeds, but sometimes they eat insects too. They also store seeds to be eaten later. They bite and sting.

Janitor ants: They make their nests in hollowed out tree twigs.

Life Cycle Of Termites

The simplified model of a termite life cycle indicates the three castes, the reproductives, the soldiers and the workers.

Workers are sterile, wingless and blind males and females. Their cuticle is unpigmented and not hardened, therefore the animals are confined to a dark and moist environment. Workers build the nest and galleries, they fetch food, care for the brood and feed reproductives and soldiers. The worker’s life span is one to two years.



Due to the fact that termites are hemimetabolous insects, even the nymphs take part in the social life and have their specific tasks to fulfil. The so far poorly understood concept of caste determination does not seem to be definitive or too rigid.

Once the caste of an individual is determined, development into other castes is still possible. Soldiers, also referred to as intercastes might turn into workers or even into reproductives, if there is a shortage of individuals of other castes. This process is controlled by pheromones.

Soldiers are, like workers sterile, wingless and blind males and females with an unpigmented, unsclerotized cuticle. Soldiers defend their colony from intruders by the use of powerful jaws and/or by ejecting a white sticky repellent from an opening on their head. Soldiers can’t feed themselves, they have to be fed by workers. Usually the number of soldiers is much smaller than the number of workers. Soldiers can be mandibulate or nasute, depending on the species. Therefore soldiers can be used for the identification of termite species. The life span of the soldiers is one to two years.

In the case of the queen, there is a specific ‘queen’ pheromone, preventing other individuals from turning into queens. Only if the queen is removed or dies, does the lack of the specific pheromone promote the development of a new queen.

Termites Or Ants

The bodies of termite swarmers are black while ant swarmers may be brown, black or red. Termite swarmers are typically much smaller than ant swarmers and have a much shorter life span out of the soil. In addition, termite swarmers have straight antennae, no constriction at the waist and both pairs of wings are equal in size. Swarmers do not destroy wood and cause no problems outside the home. Inside, swarmers are certainly a nuisance but more importantly, they are alerting you to a potential termite problem.

Flying ants and termites are often confused to the uneducated eye. However, once you know the difference, it is quote easy to determine which is which.

Flying ants have a segmented body (like a regular ant) and have an elbow antennae (curves like a human elbow). Termites have a more broad body and have two sets of wings, both being the same size.

There are other things to help you determine flying ants vs termites as well.

Ants have two sets of wings as well, but one set is usually about half the size of the other set. Their bodies come in like an hourglass shape body.

Termites will have a beaded like antennae whereas ants have a continuous line

Here is a handy trick recommended by professionals:

Place the live insects in a plastic bag or jar. Termite swarmers will almost always die within 24 hours where as the ants will live longer.