How Long Do Ants Live?
Do you ever wonder how long ants live?
You’re not alone! Many times people ask us whether it’s just best to leave ants in their house along and wait until they die off.
This makes perfect sense since we usually assume that small insects can’t survive for very long.
The tricky part about ants is that they can live a very long time.
The exact answer depends on the ant species and its role in the colony. So we’ll go into a bit more detail in this article.
All About Ants
Ants are one of the most advanced and successful insect groups throughout the world. They are social insects and their colonies contain several different types or castes of individuals. The castes include soldiers, workers, queens and males.
Ants have a high moisture requirement and nest where moisture is readily available or they may travel considerable distances to obtain it.
They become annoying when they invade homes during foraging. Some species nest in wood and may do structural damage. Some ants can bite or deliver a painful sting. This sting usually results in local swelling but in highly sensitive persons, an allergic reaction results.
Their colonies remain intact through the winter by hibernating. However, if a colony occurs indoors, the individuals may remain active all year-round.
How Do You Keep Ants Away From Your Home?
The first part of keeping ants away is to eliminate any moisture issues around the house. Faulty drainage around gutters are a frequent condition that leads to infestations.
To make sure that ants don’t find their way inside your house, the best way is to start moving them away from your home. Regular pest control treatments are effective in creating an insect free zone around your house.
How Long Do Ants Live?
This really depends on the ant species. It also depends on the conditions they live in.
Here are just some rough estimates for some of the more common ants in New Jersey:
- Carpenter Ants can live longer than 7 years
- Thief Ants can live for about a year
- Pharaoh Ants live for about a year
- Little Black Ants live for about a year
- Odorous House Ants live for about 3 months to a year
- Western Thatching Ants live for about a year
How Long Does The Ant Queen Live?
The above numbers mostly refer to the worker ants which is just one of the type of ants that make up the ant colony. The queen is the type of ant that can survive the longest.
The longest recorded life of any insect has been that of the queen ant. The queen ant lived for 28 3/4 years in captivity.
That’s a long time to live.
Can You Outlive Ants?
As you can see many ants can live for quite a long time. However, the biggest factor in determining whether you can outlive them is understanding how quickly they can reproduce. Some ant colonies have multiple queens so even after one queen is eliminated they continue to reproduce. One queen can lay up to 300,000 eggs within just a few days.
In other words, trying to outlive ants is not possible because they will actually grow in population. There’s really just one way to get rid of an ant colony which is to find where the colony is nesting and eliminating the entire colony.
How to Get Rid of Ants in Your Yard?
If you are having ant issues in your home, you are probably finding ant hills in your yard. The yard is typically the source of any ant activity inside your house. Once ants are eliminated in your yard, your ant issues in the home will most likely disappear. Start by finding the ant hills. You can eliminate the ant hills with an appropriate insecticide treatment. Sometimes you can eliminate an ant hill by pouring boiling water on it.
Once the ant hills are taken care of, it is best to make sure any conducive conditions to ant activity are eliminated. Standing water in your backyard can draw unwanted pests. Do your best to eliminate any sources of standing water. Firewood is also a gathering place for ants, especially carpenter ants. Store firewood twenty feet or further away from the house. It is also important to keep branches and shrubbery trimmed and away from the house. When branches are close to the home, ants can easily use them as a bridge to your home. Also, you can always call professionals for quick and reliable care to get rid of ants in your yard. Professionals are trained in getting rid of your ant issues and will do everything they can to protect your home and yard.
How to Get Rid of Ants inside Your Home?
The most important step in eliminating ants is eliminating the colony. If you eliminate just a few ants, then the issue will always come back. The ants you see inside your house are workers of an ant colony. They are foraging for food and water. If you kill them, the ant colony will produce new worker ants and your issue begins from scratch. Therefore it’s so important to find the colony. Finding the colony is a function of identifying which type of ants you have. Once you know what type of ants you have you will know their nesting preferences and that will help you find the colony. From there you use basic detective skills to find it. Make sure to inspect nearby wood piles, tree stumps, wood posts and nearby trees.
Once the colony is eliminated and you are still finding ants inside your home you can use a treatment with an insecticide to eliminate those that are left inside your home. Ideally the insecticide has a residual effect and is placed in areas the ants have to pass through when foraging for food.
For more info on our ant services:
Our flying ant control services
How to get rid of flying ants?
Where are all these ants coming from?
How to eliminate ants inside your home.
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