We know you’re shocked. Are ants significant enough to merit a whole article? It is necessary to write an article about ants because they are crucial to ecological balance.
A common nuisance, ant species can be found in gardens and parks worldwide. Ants may appear to be simple creatures, but they are highly complex, and you can find them in almost every region of the world. So while we may be aware of their presence on our kitchen countertops, what is the lifespan of an ant? Ever thought about it?
The answer to “For how long do ants live?” might surprise you, regardless of the type of Ant.
In this article, we’ll cover a wide range of topics, including their life span, queen ant survival, and the species of ants they’re a part of, among other things.
How Long Does an Ant Live?
You can find an ant colony or two on any pavement or near a plentiful food source. These colonies or nests can house thousands of ants, depending on the size of the nest and the number of eggs that the queen ant of that species can lay at one time. Carpenter ants and black garden ants are examples of ‘regular’ ants. Each Ant has a different lifespan. Male ants have the shortest lifespan, while pharaoh ants live for about a year.
According to kidadl, while some male ants can live for up to six years, most male ants die shortly after mating with a female ant. Most male ants’ lifespan is about a few weeks after birth.
Workers, primarily sterile female ants, can also live for six to seven years before dying. However, the lifespan of these insects is highly variable, and the availability of food largely determines their lifespan.
When food is scarce, workers often stop eating to provide more food for the colonies or nests. As a result, many die prematurely from starvation. Under favorable conditions, the average black garden ant worker can live for around 15 years. On the other hand, Carpenter ants live for only about 7-10 years from birth to death.
How Long Does a Queen Ant Live?
Queen ants generally live longer than any other worker ant in the colony because they are in charge of producing ant eggs and keeping the colony together.
Another reason queen ants can live for decades in some cases is that workers are almost always entirely dedicated to ensuring the queen has the most food and other amenities. Moreover, it ensures that the colony will continue to grow.
It is also a result of how genes function in ants. For example, the colony’s sterile worker ants lack the genetic structure that would allow them to outlive the fertile queen ant. Suppose you’ve ever observed an ant colony closely enough. In that case, you’ll notice that the queens are also larger and scarier than the colony’s males and females.
Ant colony queens can live for up to 30 years! Most queens live for about 15 years, but there are records of some queens living for nearly twice as long.
Such longevity of life also implies that if you do not deal with pests early enough, the queen ant can mate with more and more males of the species, remaking the colonies you fear so much!
How Long Does a Fire Ant Live?
Compared to other ant species, red fire ants, notorious for their painful bite, have a relatively short lifespan. The queens and workers of the fire ant colonies can only live for about a month before completing the entire life cycle.
Fire ant queens typically live between 2 and 6 years (an average of about 3 years). A queen’s record longevity is 7 years. Males die shortly after swarming and mating. Worker ants typically live for 4-6 weeks after becoming adults.
Fire ant workers live for varying amounts of time, depending on their size and the nest’s temperature. For example, small workers have a 1-2 months lifespan, medium workers have 2-3 months, and large workers have 3-6 months.
How Long Can Ants Live Without Food?
Ants can survive for four to ten days without food; most ants live for about a year. Ants eat various things, such as aphids, mealybugs, animal carcasses, and other insects.
Workers, who are the most active and spend most of their time outside looking for food, can usually only go four to ten days without eating.
Ants can find food by following pheromones or other trails left by other ants; how they find what they eat may determine how long an ant can go without eating.
How Long Can Ants Live Without Water?
Ants living in trees or among leaves are less likely to dry out than those on the ground, where getting enough moisture from rain and dew is more complicated.
If ants do not find a way to get water after about two weeks of being separated from any source, they will perish from dehydration.
Because ants live on and among plants, the most common water source is from the ground; the food chain of a typical ant’s diet will also provide them with moisture.
How Do Ants Survive?
Ant colonies can live for many years, despite individual ants being more likely to die from non-natural causes. Why? Because ants are restless workers who constantly reproduce both within and outside their colony. An ant colony’s queen is in charge of keeping things under control and ensuring the colony’s expansion.
The existing queen may produce one or two more queens when the colony is stable enough to disperse the ant population. As the cycle continues, ants thrive, though they rarely reach old age.
How Long Does an Ant Farm Last?
Because there is no queen on an ant farm, the colony only lasts as long as the worker ants do. There is a correlation between an ant farm’s lifespan and the ants that populate it. As a general rule, this time frame can last several months to a year.
How Long Do Worker Ants Live?
Interestingly, most of the colony consists of sterile female ants. They are known as “worker ants” because the queen gives birth to them so they can collect food and because they are sterile to avoid unnecessary reproduction.
Their primary duties include:
- Maintaining and protecting the ant colony.
- Collecting food.
- Caring for the queen and larvae.
Worker ants live between a few weeks and a few months in good living conditions, though some have lived for years.
How Many Ants Live in a Colony?
Despite their small stature, ants make up for it by having many of them.
According to Pest World, there can be ant colonies with thousands to millions of ants. Some of these colonies can be as deep as several hundred feet underground, depending on the type of Ant.
You can find an ant colony in any shape or size. The average ant colony consists of tens of thousands of ants, but a few species live in just a few dozen colonies. Smaller colonies use natural crevices or openings. Larger colonies build large nests and forage to obtain food and supplies. As a result, an ant colony can house millions of ants.
It is impossible to say how many ants make up a colony for the most part. Ants come in a variety of shapes and sizes and a variety of habits.
How Ant Colonies Function
Ant colonies typically contain four distinct subspecies. The queen ant is first and foremost. Having laid thousands of eggs to ensure her colony’s survival, she is the founder and leader of the hive. When it comes to her ant colony, she is the queen.
The second type of Ant is the drone, a male ant that only lives to mate with the queen before dying. Afterward, there are the ants known as the worker ants. The colony’s food, foraging, and defense are all the responsibility of the female ants. There are no male ants to be found outside of the nest.
Alates, which are winged males and females, are the fourth type. Ants in this group will leave the colony together and form new colonies elsewhere. The queens of their colonies are the females with wings, and the drones are the males.
The Ant Queen
With drones, queen ants abandon the colony to start a new one at birth. As soon as she gives birth to an ant, her life’s mission begins reproduction.
Even though she only performs one task, it is critical to the colony’s well-being. As a result, to avoid being preyed upon, her colony constructs its chambers as far below ground as possible.
There may be several queens in a colony. Supercolonies of ants can extend for miles and reach a depth of 25 feet underground, containing tens of millions of ants.
How to Tell if an Ant is a Queen
The queen ant’s size will help you identify her if you encounter an ant colony. Due to her size, she is twice as large as the other ants. She also has wings, which make her appear even more enormous.
The Ant Colony’s Power Dynamics
Some worker ants may attempt to turn on multiple queens to leave only one queen when there are multiple queens. In some instances, ants have killed all the queens, effectively destroying their colony.
Whenever a situation like this arises, you can count on a queen to put up a fight. When a queen realizes she isn’t the only one in the colony, she begins to reduce her population. Strategically, it may be counter-productive because it reduces the number of ants in the supercolony.
Worker ants are more likely to attack the queen if there are fewer of them in the colony. Because she has fewer ants, she can better take on the worker ants.
However, worker ants killing queen ants can have disastrous results. Queen ants that are more fertile and productive emit a stronger chemical odor that attracts other queens. The worker ants are more likely to save the queen who produces the most ants for the colony.
Workers in colonies with more than one queen may try to get rid of those who aren’t putting forth as much work.
There’s a chance that their revolt will go too far and wipe out the colony’s queens, which would be catastrophic.
How Long Do Ants Live Without a Queen?
The queen ant ensures the colony’s survival. Depending on the species, a queen can lay thousands of eggs per day. The colony will eventually die if a queen dies (female worker ants cannot reproduce). There will be no immediate destruction, but the population will slowly dwindle and die due to the lack of a queen.
Final Words – How Long Do Ants Live?
So now you know what makes Ants such fascinating and unusual creatures. They can be beneficial insects or pests depending on their ecosystem role. Their toughness, endurance, and resistance are qualities to be admired.
Given their size and the conditions they can withstand, it’s no surprise that some scientists call them “nature’s miracle.”