FACTS, IDENTIFICATION AND CONTROL
Latin name: Linepithema humile
OVERVIEW
Argentine ants are light or dark brown in color with the length of 2.2 – 2.8 mm. Their antennae have 12 segments.
ACTIVITY, FOOD AND HABIT
Argentine are well – adaptable and it can make their nest in various places. Their “colonies” are large scales and there are hundreds of queens. They usually nest in moist soil, near or under structure, along sidewalks or beneath boards. These ants travel in trails.
Argentine ants are omnivorous. It means that they eat almost things but they prefer sweet food.
REPRODUCTION
Similar to life cycle of other ants, they have to pass through maturity cycle which is called pantamorphia. Their eggs are white in color and hatch after 28 days. Larvae will mature with 74 days.
Argentine can grow in soil, under fire woods, sawn timbers and roots. They also nest in holes under bushes or roots. Their nests are not deep, about 20 cm (8 inch) compared to ground with the open areas.
IDENTIFY INVADING ARGENTINE ANTS
An argentine ant moving everywhere is the clearest sign. We can see these ants are moving on structure, trees and inside. Read more information about invading Argentine ants.
MORE INFORMATION
All Argentine ants have the same size. They move in certain roads from the tunnel network to food sources. Their foods contain sweets, honeydew and oily food.
NEST AND COLONY
While other ants fly everywhere in mating seasons, Argentine do not establish new nest through swarming. Those ants which have ability of reproduction do not fly out of the nest, they will mate inside the nest instead. At this point, depending on temperature or population, queens will emerge themselves and establish a new “colony”. The new nests are usually build surrounding to main colony, connect with the old nest. Therefore, the workers commonly communicate between two colonies.
THE QUEEN
Argentine Queen have some different feature from others. Some different features about shape and habit include:
The Argentine queens have small size, range from 0.4 – 0.6 cm, smaller than other queens. Argentine queens need only a male for each mating and they continue lay a huge of eggs when they are alive. While other ants fly everywhere to find males in mating season to establish new colony, Argentine ants do not establish the new one through this process. Instead that, they mate inside the colony. An Argentine colony may have some queens and each of them can lay 60 eggs per day.
The Argentine queens help the worker feed on the young. Most other ant queens primarily lay eggs and depend on the ant workers to feed and care for the young.
The Argentine ant queens are very active and we can see them outside the nest while other queens spend their life inside. This allow the Argentine ant queens to move other places and reestablish quickly when the living conditions are more difficult. Depending on temperature and colony pressure, a queen will leave “colony” and build a new one without flying far away,
MALES
Male Argentine ants hatch from the queen’s unfertilized eggs and are fairly short lived. The single function of male Argentine is mating with the queen in order to help the colony maintain and proliferate. They usually die soon after mating.
Argentine ants attack other insects and invade in human’s houses. By time, networks of ant colonies will connect and this causes serious damages. Each ant colony contains millions of individuals and a huge number of queens. These colonies can distribute to city building structure. Controlling Argentine ant is very difficult and you had better have pest control experts inspected and treated.