Ant 蚂蚁

General Biology

1. Social insects which established castes system.
2. Workers can be monomorphic or dimorphic depends on species.
3. Able to budding in some species - Movement of one to several queens with some workers carrying immatures to establish a new colony. Very common in household ants. Queens are not needed to start new colony; larvae can be turned into queens through special feedings.

Life Cycle

1. Ants undergo complete metamorphosis, experiencing 4 stages which are egg, larvae, pupa and adult respectively.

2. The entire process takes about 2-3 months depending on species and other factors such as food source, surrounding temperature and etc.

3. The eggs are very tiny and white in colour. Larvae is legless, soft and immobile, it will moult few times to reach pupa stage.

4. Pupa resembles an adult ant, but they are immobile, soft and white in colour.

Common Ant Species

	Ghost Ant	Crazy Ant	Pharaoh Ant	Weaver Ant
Size	1.3 - 1.5 mm Long	3mm Long	1.5 - 2mm Long	7 - 8mm Long
Appearance	Dark head and thorax, translucent gaster and legs, emit a rotten smell when crushed. Monomorphic worker.	Dark brown to black; long-legged. Body with long and coarse hairs. Monomorphic worker.	Yellow-brown, black eyes with two small segments at the pedicel. Multiple queens co-exist in a colony.	Queen is green or light yellow, while the king is black. Dimorphic workers. 1 queen per colony.
Diets	Sugar-based.	Mostly General feeder but some prefer sugar-based food.	Sugar and Protein-based.	Normally eat tiny insects and show a preference towards nectar/sugary solution.
Habitats	Outdoor species, but can nest indoor if the moisture level is high.	Outdoor species, but forage indoor.	Indoor species	Usually nest on trees; one colony may consist of several satellite nests containing eggs at several locations in one tree, or on several trees.
Behaviour	They create a nuisance to people but they do not bite/sting.	They move in erratic ways when being disturbed	They often damaged and penetrate the materials such as plastics bags by chewing using their strong mandibles. More prone to carry pathogens when they feed in unhygienic places. The budding process will be triggered when pyrethroid insecticide introduced.	It will bite when disturbed but do not sting

Signs of Infestation

Live Foraging ants in unconventional places, for eg: bedroom, bathroom & etc.
Active ant trails.
Ant nests/mounds which usually look like a small pile of soil or dirt that could be found indoor or outdoor.

Treatments

Insecticide residual spraying.
Gel baiting.

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