life cycle of the ant?

[Harry]

hello all,

i noticed a great deal of ant-flies (ants with wings) in my garden on
saturday and now those nests seem deserted. i guess they fly off to start
new colonies elsewhere.

does this mean no more ants till next year? what is the life cycle of the
ant or ant-colony?

many thanks,

Harry.

 

[Mary Fisher]

hello all,

i noticed a great deal of ant-flies (ants with wings) in my garden on
saturday and now those nests seem deserted. i guess they fly off to start
new colonies elsewhere.

does this mean no more ants till next year? what is the life cycle of the
ant or ant-colony?

The nest isn't deserted.

You'll get lots of authoritative answers on uk.rec.natural-history,
honestly.

Mary

 

[Velvet]

hello all,

i noticed a great deal of ant-flies (ants with wings) in my garden on
saturday and now those nests seem deserted. i guess they fly off to start
new colonies elsewhere.

does this mean no more ants till next year? what is the life cycle of the
ant or ant-colony?

many thanks,

Harry.

Not quite sure it's a diy thing, but still...

Flying ants are the new queens and males - raised that year in the old
nest. Queens bigger, males smaller. The new (virgin) queens take
flight, followed by the males. Mating mid-air ensues - and then
wherever the queens land, they rub their wings off, and look for a
suitable site for a new nest. Males unfortunately land and die - they
have no further use in the ant lifecycle. The original nest continues -
but underground - you only see the fine earth piled up in the run up and
shortly after the flights, while the newly mated queens go off to set up
their own nest. Eventually she will have a functioning nest, complete
with worker ants, and will produce the next generation of queens and
males ready to take to the wing and start the cycle all over again.

Nests survive from year to year, unless neighbouring ant colonies invade
and wipe it out, so if you have ant hills in your lawn/borders once,
chances are you'll get them this sort of time again next year, and the
year after...

On the other hand, ants apparently do a good job at pest control -
though I must say their farming of aphids leaves a lot to be desired IMO.

Velvet

 

[Gnube]

The new (virgin) queens take
flight, followed by the males.

Not round here they don't!

I got that "fog of ant powder" down to a fine art now! All over
(including the wriggling) in ten minutes! ;O)

Take Care,
Gnube
{too thick for linux}

 

[Andy Dingley]

You'll get lots of authoritative answers on uk.rec.natural-history,
honestly.

I'd rather ask talk.origins how the ant had evolved, than go anywhere
near a UK CONservation newsgroup 8-( I've never seen ng's quite so
polluted by trollish egos.

 

[Peter Ashby]

On the other hand, ants apparently do a good job at pest control -
though I must say their farming of aphids leaves a lot to be desired IMO.

I was at the beack a while ago and we sat down in the sand dunes for
lunch, sheltered from the wind, and I was watching the ants farming
scale bugs on every little sprig of sorrel (that's what I think it was
anyway). Every plant was infested and patroled by ants, fascinating to
watch.

Peter

 

[Peter Ashby]

I'd rather ask talk.origins how the ant had evolved, than go anywhere
near a UK CONservation newsgroup 8-( I've never seen ng's quite so
polluted by trollish egos.

I know what you mean, but the animal rights loonies don't care about
ants and if you read offline you won't have to download the endless
crap. It's easy to spot, the loons use capital letters in the subject
lines. In amongst the crap you will get an informed response, and at the
moment the loonies seem to be kept quiet by the heat, or its loony
holiday season.

Peter

 

[stuart noble]

Harry wrote in message ...

does this mean no more ants till next year? what is the life cycle of the
ant or ant-colony?

Get a book from the library. Big subject but totally fascinating. Did you
know they have soldiers who are so heavily armed they cannot feed
themselves? etc etc. I'm sure I've whetted your appetite

 

[Andrew McKay]

I was at the beack a while ago and we sat down in the sand dunes for
lunch, sheltered from the wind, and I was watching the ants farming
scale bugs on every little sprig of sorrel (that's what I think it was
anyway). Every plant was infested and patroled by ants, fascinating to
watch.

I happen to think highly of ants. If there's a possibility of
creatures being able to pool intelligence they've got to be a living
example of the concept.

In that tiny little body they can't have much in terms of brain power,
but collectively they know how to survive and deal with everything
life throws at them.

Rather than brain power it's probably got more to do with some sort of
undiscovered chemical system - a chemical system with legs and
disconnected parts

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our
web site at http://www.handymac.co.uk

 

[tony sayer]

Harry wrote in message ...
Get a book from the library. Big subject but totally fascinating. Did you
know they have soldiers who are so heavily armed they cannot feed
themselves? etc etc. I'm sure I've whetted your appetite

Isn't there a web cam on the natural history site of their ant room?..

 

[Peter Ashby]

I happen to think highly of ants. If there's a possibility of
creatures being able to pool intelligence they've got to be a living
example of the concept.

In that tiny little body they can't have much in terms of brain power,
but collectively they know how to survive and deal with everything
life throws at them.

Rather than brain power it's probably got more to do with some sort of
undiscovered chemical system - a chemical system with legs and
disconnected parts

yes, the social insects are very much a success story, and we humans
think we invented farming and animal husbandry. We are beginning to
understand how they do it, or at least some of the chemical cues they
use. It is remarkable the sort of complex behaviour you can get out of
an apparently rather simple nerve net too.

Peter

 

[Mary Fisher]

I happen to think highly of ants.

So do I. I'm glad there's another supporter who doesn't want to kill
everything which is (usually wrongly) perceived as a nuisance.

Mary

 

[Gnube]

So do I. I'm glad there's another supporter who doesn't want to kill
everything which is (usually wrongly) perceived as a nuisance.

I think they are smart and scary, however the day they started
damaging our building, they were going to lose - it's amazing how hard
they have resisted so far, but I keep on top of them for the most
part.

I've even left them to it on a part of the property they attacked
which would not have dire consequences if they carried on, but once
they cross my threshold, they are going to be terminated, and it seems
they have more or less learned that now they've had time to learn too!
They've even cut back severely on their scouting missions in our
direction.

That said I have no real problems with them or any other creatures as
long as they don't cross "the policy line" I have decided on - I even
peacefully evicted the same butterfly/moth this morning - 3 times (a
particularly dim one it seems!) and I threw it out twice yesterday!
Hardly cavalier treatment on my part! I explained to it that I was of
course pleased to see it, as it was a handsome beast, but it was
better off being elsewhere! I lined it up at the threshold, gave it
clearance and vector for departure, and off it went, eventually.

Take Care,
Gnube
{too thick for linux}

 

[Gnube]

But if anyone knows how to lay borax down over the uk.env newsgroups,
I'd be interested....

What you need is any weed killer which warns that over spray will kill
vegetables! ;O)

Take Care,
Gnube
{too thick for linux}