Note the two segments of the 'waist' or pedicel and the bend in
the antennae which are a feature of Red Ants.
Ants belong to a small section in the order Hymenoptera, including
Bees and
Wasps, which have an ovipositer that has
evolved as a sting; in some species of ant the sting is absent or has been adapted to squirt
instead of inject the irritant - formic acid. Another feature of this section is that they are social creatures,
living in colonies with different roles for their members, ie. workers, drones and queens. Ants are
found all over the world with about 11,500 species, 47 of which are in the British Isles.
Some
birds place ants in their plumage to clear out mites. For devotees of the Bush Tucker Trials, ants
must be cooked before consumption to denature the poison. Formic acid was first extracted from ants
in the late seventeenth century and was named after the family name Formicidae.
Ants have one of the larger brains in proportion to overall body size, at about 6%. Before the advent of surgical stitches, Soldier ants, one of the larger tropical species, were used to bind wounds - the flesh was held together, the ant was held close to it and it bit with its strong jaws, then the head was cut off leaving the 'stitch' in place.
The Red Ant is one of the commonest and there are eight species of them here - the one pictured above is probably Myrmica ruginodis. Colonies of 100 to 300 can be found under stones and paving or sometimes rotting tree trunks, in most gardens. Their sting is the piercing type and can be painful.
Red Ants prefer sweet food like nectar or the honeydew secreted by
Aphids. When they find a food source they lay
a trail of pheromone back to the nest and regurgitate some of the food as in indicator when they
communicate with the other workers there. Some species of ants 'herd' Aphids to ensure a ready
supply of honeydew.
Also the Myrmica species are known to tend the larvae of Blue
Butterflies whose caterpillers secrete a few drops of sweet liquid which causes the ants to take
them into the nest where they feed on the ant larvae.
The majority of members of a colony are sterile female workers, but some of the eggs
develop into males (drones) whose only purpose is to mate with the new queens. In the late summer
these males and future queens develop wings in order to mate.
These ants have grown wings, ready to take part in their mating ritual.
The males die after the ordeal or are killed if they attempt to return to the nest, but the fertilised young queens bite off their wings and find a site to start a new colony. They dig out a nest and settle in for the winter. The eggs hatch into larvae the following year, tended by the new queen and these become mostly workers. Their job is to tend the larvae of subsequent batches of eggs, feeding them and the queen on regurgitated food.
If the nest is disturbed the workers rush around clutching larvae carrying them to safety.
The queen dies after up to 15 years of a productive life, and the colony dies out.
Treatments
Ants are not usually a problem and can live quite happily in the garden without causing too much damage. They can make mounds of soil as they excavate their nest, but this can be brushed away. If disturbed they will defend their territory and give some stings, but usually this is just a mild irritation. If they are giving you aggravation there are many ways to discourage or remove them. Here are a few:-
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