Wondering how long ants live?
You’re in the right place!
In this guide, you’ll learn:
- How long ants typically live
- A couple facts about ant lifestyle
- If queen ants live longer than normal (worker) ants
- And final thoughts on ant lifespan
If you’ve noticed an ant infestation in or near your home, you might be hoping that you can outlive them.
这是一个诱人的想法,因为你不会哈ve to invest in an exterminator or any pest control supplies.
Unfortunately, ants can live a long time…
…Areally, reallylong time.
There are a lot of factors that contribute to the overall lifespan of an ant, including its species and roll in the colony.
Below is some useful information to determine how long your uninvited visitors might be staying if you don’t act soon.
Ed has been working in the pest control industry for years helping 1,000's of homeowners navigate the world of insect and rodent management. He manages Pest Strategies now helping homeowners around the world!
Table of Contents
What Are Ants?
Ants areinsectsthat live in enormous colonies and rely on the careful structure of their colony for survival.
Each colony always has a queen who controls the group’s reproduction, but some larger ant colonies have two or three ant queens. The majority of ants aresterile femaleswho serve as workers and soldiers to build, maintain, and protect the colony.
Read Also:What do ants like to eat?
Because ants are insects, their bodies are divided into three segments: the head, the abdomen, and the thorax.
They also have apair of antennaeon their head and large compound eyes. Soldiers might have large mandibles as well for defense.
Where Do Ants Live?
There is no one answer to this question.
There are over1,000 species of antswithin North America alone, and their living space changes on the ants’ diet and their social structure.
Some of the most common places for ants to live include:
- In dirt mounds with subterranean colonies
- In the wood ofstructures and logs(carpenter ants)
- Underneath sidewalk pavement
- In large trees with access to fungus and honeydew
It’s also not uncommon to find ants living in your home or other human buildings like restaurants.
This is because they are attracted to theabundant food resources, which include access to the sugars and proteins they need to sustain a large colony.
How Long Do Ants Live?
There is no “one size fits all” answer for the lifespan of an ant.
Each species has a different average time they can live, and even that varies based on a lot of factors.
Below is a list of some of the most common ant species in the United States and their projected lifespans as determined by entomologists and professionals.
- Carpenter ants live for about7-10 years
- Black garden ants live forup to 15 years
- Pharaoh ants can survivebetween 4-12 years
- Thief ants live forup to 1 year
- Red ant (fire ants)can live from 30 days(workers) to up to 6 years (queen fire ant)
Ants will go to ruthless measures to survive, especially for the sake of the colony.
Watch this queen ant enslave another colony to survive:
How long worker ants will live greatly depends on their available food sources.
If food sources become scarce,worker ants will sacrifice themselvesfor the rest of the colony. Without a food source, they will eat less so that the rest of the colony will have food to eat.
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Does The Queen Ant Live Longer?
Just as different species of ants live longer, so too do the different castes.
In almost every ant species,the queen lives the longest out of all of them.
Some queens can live to be over 15 years old, while some have even been recorded as28!
Workers and soldiers also tend to be long-lived. In some colonies, these two groups can surviveup to 7 yearsserving their society through loyal service.
The shortest lived caste is the males. As mentioned earlier, most ants are actually sterile females. The queens do all of the reproducing for most species except for a few outliers likethief ants.
Male ants live long enough to reproduce with a queen and then die. Each queen will produce a few males every so often so they can collect sperm to create the next batch of workers and soldiers.
This means that male antsmay only live for several weeks, mate once, and then die.
Availability of Food Affects Lifespan of Ants
How long worker ants will live greatly depends on their available food sources.
The preferred diet of any one ant colony varies between sweet type foods (“sugar ants”) and protein rich foods (“grease ants”).
If food sources become scarce,worker ants will sacrifice themselvesfor the rest of the colony. Without a food source, they will eat less so that the rest of the colony will have food to eat.
This means that eliminating ant food source can limit the amount of worker ants around, but it also means that the colony will continue to operate for quite a while, especially the queen.
If you have an ant problem and you’re trying to get rid of them, I’d recommend using a mixture of granules, traps, and gels in order to ensure you target the diet of the ant infestation you have.
Click hereto check out our top rated ant killers here.
Final Thoughts on Ants and Their Lifespan
If you have an ant problem, they may be around a lot longer than you think.
It’s almost impossible to wait them out, especially since some kinds can live longer than your pets.
When struggling with an ant infestation, it would be best to look into pest control methods or call a professional exterminator to get the ants before they get you.
