The benefits and harms of ants in the garden

The benefits and harms of ants

Insects can live in a wide variety of ecological zones, so they often conflict with people.
Ants carry aphids, which feed on the sap of various plants and trees, helping to weaken them. Ants can damage agricultural crops, which can lead to the destruction of the entire crop. But there are also benefits from ants. Many people do not even suspect what benefits ants bring, but this is very important. These creatures can destroy an incredible number of caterpillars and other insects that harm crop plants in a season.

The benefits of ants have been fully proven. They cause more than just harm.

How ants overwinter and how they prepare for winter

Many people are interested in facts from the life of insects. For example, what do ants do in winter? Today you will find out how these little eternal workers prepare for the coldest period of the year, where the ants spend the winter, which of them hibernate and which do not. What do those insects that do not sleep, who are ant neighbors in winter, do?

Step-by-step instructions, read and understand at home:

• 1 How ants prepare for winter
• 2 Video at home “Winter period for ants”
• 3 Where do they spend the winter?
• 4 How do they winter
• 5 Do ants sleep?
• 6 Winter labor
• 7 Neighbors
• 8 Video at home “What happens to ants after hibernation”

The chambers where ant larvae overwinter in winter differ from those in summer. Before the onset of cold weather, adult individuals carefully prepare - in order to insulate the house, all holes in it are well sealed with dry grass along with soil.

If in winter the upper part of an anthill suddenly gets wet, a special rescue team drags food supplies to deeper compartments. Insects overwinter in their cozy shelter until March-April.

A sign that the goosebumps will soon appear on the surface will be the laying of eggs by the uterus and the gradual resumption of labor activity. In spring, the life of adult individuals becomes active and resumes in full.

Ants living in different regions overwinter differently. For example, polar species go to winter for a long period of 7–9 months. And during that short warm period of the year when there is no snow, they manage to feed their offspring.

Insects that are residents of Kazakhstan, the Mediterranean, Central Asia, that is, hot southern regions, overwinter for no more than 1 - 2 months. Ants living in Turkey do not overwinter every year. It occurs in insects only in the presence of harsh weather conditions.

But the goosebumps prepare for winter every year. They arrange the house, collect seeds as food supplies, and feed the larvae. The little pest of the pharaoh ant, known to many, never prepares for wintering, nor does it itself.

In winter, ants stop their development - the larvae do not grow, stop pupating, the queens do not lay eggs, and the last pupae complete metamorphosis. In preparation for the winter period, workers absorb aphid secretions.

They contain sugar, which is transformed into glycerol inside the ant's body. It reaches about 30% of the insect’s body, helping it preserve itself and not turn into ice when it’s cold.

I wonder, do all ants rest in winter? And what do those who work do?

Every autumn, the life of an ant begins to change dramatically. The insect begins to prepare for the coming winter. The queen no longer lays eggs, and the worker ant very vigorously eats the aphid secretions. The aphid secretes sugar, which is converted to glycerol in the ant's body.

These insects always close the main exit from the anthill, but leave small holes for ventilation. Only after this do they descend into the deepest room of their shelter. The colder the winter, the deeper the ants will hide.

Ants must repair the anthill before the onset of winter cold, if necessary.

If you dig up an anthill in the winter season, then pay attention to the fact that the ants do not sleep soundly. They're just stuck

But they continue to instinctively secrete acid and wave their mandibles.

Also nearby are the larvae of these insects, which ants love to feed on. It happens that neighbors destroy all supplies, which the ants really don’t like.

Ants that live in Central Asia hibernate for 1–2 months.

It is not every year that this insect winters in Turkey. It hides only in case of severe frosts, and in this country this rarely happens. But the ants are still preparing for the winter, preparing food and arranging their homes.

The Kamchatka ant makes its home on hummocks. In this case, the depth of the anthill will be about 10–40 cm.

Pharaoh ants (domestic) do not sleep in winter and do not even prepare for it. They live quietly in houses, dying only if they accidentally remain on the street.

How to prepare an anthill

The condition of an anthill in winter is not much different from summer, especially for worker ants that remain awake throughout the winter. With the onset of cold weather, only the location of the insects changes: they move away from the cold surface of the soil into deeper wintering chambers. In them, the temperature is maintained in a relatively stable state throughout the entire period. Ants carefully seal all entrances to their home with earth and the remains of dry plants. And insects that live in forests in anthills - “heaps” - also insulate their large homes with an additional layer of pine needles, fallen leaves and other plant debris.

Some of the ants fall into winter sleep; at this time, their internal organs function in slow motion. But the majority of insects do not sleep and continue to work. They monitor the safety of supplies and the condition of the home and larvae: not all of their species become adults before the onset of winter, and the main task of the ants is to feed them. So life in this home is in full swing all year round.

Ants can move around their home, gradually rising closer to the exit, especially with the onset of a thaw, when the air temperature rises and the anthill begins to warm up. Sometimes insects open separate passages and look out to the surface even in winter at a certain temperature.

With the onset of spring, when you can uncork the entrances to your home and go to the surface, these smart and caring insects help their anthill warm up faster. They crawl out into the sun, and soon their body temperature rises by about 10 degrees. And now thousands of warmed ants rush to their cold home to give it their warmth. Thus, the temperature in the anthill stabilizes very quickly.

The ant family has many species and all have different living conditions. Their northern brethren have to work hard in the spring and summer to survive in the cold and frosts, while the ants of the southern regions are not too worried about the onset of winter and only thanks to changes in temperature, length of day and night, and changes in the composition of food do they start the mechanism of preparing for winter. Thanks to the surrounding nature, which stimulates these processes, ants make the most of their abilities, which help them survive.

Preparing an anthill for wintering

Before the onset of the winter season, insects begin to actively prepare for wintering. Successfully overcoming the cold depends on how ants prepare for winter. To do this, they stock up on a large amount of food and insulate their anthill outside and inside. An additional layer of twigs and leaves on top of the mound retains heat inside the home. The upper floors of the house may be subject to freezing, so all supplies of food and nutritious products are transferred to the lower levels of the anthill.

Anthill in winter

Interesting!

The retention of heat in an ant's home depends on the amount of snow on its top. A thick layer of snow creates additional protection for the anthill from wind and frost.

The next step is preparing a special chamber where the ants overwinter. There they spend almost the entire winter, leaving the compartment only when necessary. At the deep level of the anthill, the temperature in winter stays around zero, which allows adult individuals to live there and lead a measured life.

For the winter, all entrances to the anthill are covered by working insects with earth and clay and the corridors are insulated from the inside. The shepherds move the herds to the lower tiers, where they continue to care for their “cows” and receive a sweet delicacy from them.

Where do ants spend the winter?

When cold weather sets in, the ants block all the exits from their house, which they do not leave until spring. They live in the lower layers of the anthill, where the temperature remains stable around +5...6°C and never drops below 0°. Thanks to this, the ants manage to survive the winter without loss.

On a note . The depth of the house can reach up to 2 m below ground level.

If the upper part of the anthill gets wet in winter, insects quickly transfer food supplies and larvae to a dry place. During a thaw, ants may come to the surface to replenish food supplies. To do this, they open only a couple of passages and, after returning, carefully seal everything again.

How ants winter, features of insects, the structure of their family and methods of control

Before the onset of the cold season, adult individuals carefully seal all external passages from the anthill in advance using dry grass and earth. Passages are opened only for the time when food supplies need to be replenished. But this happens only when the ambient temperature rises.

If in winter the upper part of the anthill gets wet, a special detachment transfers food supplies to chambers that are located deeper. Ants overwinter in their insulated home until March-April. The main sign that insects are approaching the surface is the laying of eggs by the queen and the gradual resumption of activity. In the spring, the life activity of adult insects resumes completely.

Living in different regions and under different climatic conditions, all these insects overwinter in their own way. For example, polar species have to spend the winter from 7 to 9 months. They manage to feed their offspring during that short warm period of time when there is no snow. In their expansion to the north, insects are stopped only by the border, beyond which, even in summer, the soil does not warm up deeper than 30 cm.

For example:

• Kamchatkas make their homes on hummocks; the depth of their anthills ranges from 10 to 40 cm. The temperature of the ground in summer is very important to them for the normal development of the larvae.
• Ants living in hot regions of Central Asia and the Mediterranean overwinter for a maximum of 1 to 2 months.
• Ants living in Turkey do not winter every year. They hide for the winter only when severe weather conditions occur, which does not happen very often. But this type of insect still prepares for wintering every year, making food reserves, arranging homes and feeding larvae.
• The well-known pest of the pharaoh ant, or as it is also called the house ant, never prepares for winter and does not go to bed. This is due to the fact that its homeland is the tropics, where there are no climate changes. He lives excellently in a person’s home and can die only when, by some accident, he remains on the street.

In winter, the larvae stop their development and do not pupate, the pupae stop metamorphosis, and the queens stop laying eggs. In preparation for winter, adult workers feed on aphid secretions. These secretions contain large amounts of sugar, which is converted into glycerol in the body.

Judging by the research of scientists, ants have no strict ban on leaving the anthill in winter. Insects simply move in those temperature zones where they will not freeze. But basically, this temperature is maintained only inside the nest. When the thaw comes, the anthill warms up, and the insects crawl to the outermost exits, and when the air temperature rises strongly, they open several exits and crawl to the surface. This often happens even in winter.

Males (as in the entire animal world, and there is no exception here) fertilize young females and die after mating. Well, the fate of the males is sad... The third category of members of the ant family is the most numerous and effective - workers. These are mainly females who cannot bear offspring. Since they do all the housework, they differ in size, sensitivity of their sensory organs, and activity.

The queen sometimes leaves the nest when laying eggs.

Their sphere of activity is varied: weaver ants, there are nannies (they look after young individuals), a significant part of the family is engaged in nest construction, forager ants are engaged in prey, there are cleaners, and stock keepers. An ant family can number hundreds of thousands of individuals, but at the same time they all work as a single organism.

And this cannot be surprising. If you decide to find out how ants overwinter in an anthill, then first of all it should be noted that anthills in cold regions are underground, which allows insects to withstand the most unfavorable environmental conditions, including low temperatures. During this period, insects operate in “economy” mode, and the reserves that were collected in the summer are enough for the entire colony.

Ants that have taken a fancy to a living space pose a serious problem. In addition to the negative feelings that arise from the mere awareness of the presence of these insects in the house, they pose a real threat to the health of residents, carrying dangerous diseases: dysentery, typhoid fever, diphtheria, etc. Ants are also unsafe for pets.

CONTACT WITH ANIMALS IS DANGEROUS OF PARASITE INFECTION!

Preparing for cold weather

Why don't ants freeze in winter?

While ants living in temperate latitudes can build deep houses and spend the winter there at a temperature that is comfortable for them, insects of this species living in Kamchatka and the Far North do not have this opportunity due to permafrost. Maximum they can go deeper by 20-30 cm.

Considering the severe frosts down to -50°C and below, this is negligible for survival. But, nevertheless, the ants succeed. And the secret is very simple: they feed on special sugary substances secreted by aphids. Complex sugars push back the limits of freezing of liquids, serving as a kind of antifreeze. This allows the larvae, queen and worker ants to survive even a very cold winter in a state of sleep.

Video at home Winter period for ants

In this video you will learn how these insects survive winter.

Those ants that do not hibernate move quite little and also rarely consume food. But when the larvae spend the winter in the home, the adults continue to actively feed them. These types of ants carefully prepare for the winter period, collecting larvae in special chambers where it is possible to create a comfortable microclimate.

To survive, working individuals have been preparing food supplies since the fall, which should be enough before the snow begins to melt. With the onset of cold weather, the workforce carries out home repairs in those places where it is necessary.

This video shows what happens to ants after winter sleep.

Do ants sleep in winter?

We already know where goosebumps go to live with the onset of cold weather. Some adult individuals spend the winter in sleep, that is, in a state of diapause. At the same time, the work of all internal organs does not stop, but only decreases. Other types of insects are still active, but not as much as in summer. In some insect species, only adult individuals spend the winter.

These are species in which diapause does not occur. Larvae need protein food - for example, other arthropods, which adults are not able to obtain. By the onset of winter, the offspring from the eggs laid in the spring turn into adult ants, which go to winter. And the queen lays eggs again in the spring, when the first protein food is already available.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=6cqXS7akwBw%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Interesting facts from the life of ants are known. For example, in Kolyma the minimum possible temperature for insects was once recorded - minus 58 degrees. What is surprising is that the larvae’s metabolism did not stop. In this state, the ants practically lose their mobility. We can say that they are falling asleep.

Where do they spend the winter?

The chambers where ant larvae overwinter in winter differ from those in summer. Before the onset of cold weather, adult individuals carefully prepare - in order to insulate the house, all holes in it are well sealed with dry grass along with soil. The holes open only for the time when insects need to replenish food supplies. But this is done only when the air temperature rises slightly.

If in winter the upper part of an anthill suddenly gets wet, a special rescue team drags food supplies to deeper compartments. Insects overwinter in their cozy shelter until March-April. A sign that the goosebumps will soon appear on the surface will be the laying of eggs by the uterus and the gradual resumption of labor activity. In spring, the life of adult individuals becomes active and resumes in full.

How ants prepare for winter

The science that studies ants is called myrmecology. After long-term observations of the behavior of these hard workers, scientists can finally lift the veil of secrecy, reveal the secrets of these small but incredibly powerful insects and tell what ants do in winter, how they prepare for the coldest time of the year, whether they hibernate or not, and what insect species overwinter with ants.

Preparing for cold weather

In the life of an anthill, preparation for winter cold is the most important period. Since spring, all the efforts of the colony are concentrated on preparing resources for wintering and the appearance of young animals before the arrival of frost. It is reliably known that many ants do not go into suspended animation in winter, but lead an active lifestyle, although not the same as in the warm season. How they prepare for winter has been studied by both scientific myrmecologists and amateurs. The main stages of preparation for winter are:

• food preparation,
• insulation of the anthill.

When preparing food for food in winter, insects obtain and bring into their home dry fruits, seeds of various plants, as well as dried parts of the plants themselves. Insects drag the prepared provisions from one place to another all winter, which prevents it from deteriorating in conditions of high humidity, and the insects themselves do not die from hunger.

In winter, eggs laid in summer are also a good help. They are sterile (in other words, trophic) and serve as good feeding during the cold season.

When keeping our “native” ants (temperate ants), it is necessary to take into account the fact that all these species are adapted to seasonal changes. The process of so-called wintering is integral in the life of many species. At the beginning of autumn, the colony stops in its development: the queen stops laying eggs, the workers raise the remaining larvae and nurse the remaining cocoons. The family is preparing to spend the winter.

The transition to diapause does not depend on temperature, so it is useless to provoke ants to reproduce and develop through systematic heating. There are three ways to do this:

1. Leave the insects alone and continue to care for them as before. In early spring, the colony will begin to develop again. However, six months of ant life will pass when idle. If the colony is small, then there is a possibility that if it is not properly cared for, it will die out over the winter without any growth.
2. Give the ants an artificial winter, keeping them at a low temperature for the entire six months of their natural diapause.
3. Carry out an accelerated wintering.

Leaving ants for six months is beneficial when you don't have enough time for them and want to take a six-month vacation. When you want to see the full development of your pets 24 hours a day, 356 days a year, it is better to spend an accelerated wintering (2-4 months).

In the future, as data is collected, the lists will be supplemented. You can follow the rule: everything belonging to the genus Formica, Camponotus, Polyergus and Catagliphis overwinters.

STELS diapause:

1. The beginning of diapause is mid-October – early November. 2-4 weeks before the deadline indicated above, we keep the ants without artificial heating.
2. We feed the ants thoroughly. You can focus primarily on carbohydrate food. Ants should go into winter well-fed.
3. We find a place whose temperature ranges from 7 to 15 degrees (no higher!). Such places can be utility rooms in the corridor or entrance, basements, cellars; a simple refrigerator works well (be sure to check the temperature first).
4. We place the formicarium with the colony in the selected room or refrigerator. If there is an arena, disconnect the formicarium from the arena.
5. We keep the formicarium at a low temperature for 2 months. In the process, you can feed the ants and moisten the formicarium. After the end of the period, we move the structure with ants to the old place.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ozfvMyO2XlY%3Ffeature%3Doembed

After exiting diapause, we do not warm the ants for 1-2 weeks; we feed them intensively with carbohydrate and, most importantly, protein food. Usually the egg packets appear around the second week. With good care, the first clutches can appear as early as the sixth day.

PS: If you have your own methods of wintering in general, different from those described, or wintering for a specific species, write to us. All high-quality and interesting techniques will be added to this article. ‹ leaf cutter Acromyrmex octospinosus Top

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Preparing for cold weather

In the life of an anthill, preparation for winter cold is the most important period. Since spring, all the efforts of the colony are concentrated on preparing resources for wintering and the appearance of young animals before the arrival of frost. It is reliably known that many ants in winter do not go into suspended animation , but lead an active lifestyle, although not the same as in the warm season. How they prepare for winter has been studied by both scientific myrmecologists and amateurs. The main stages of preparation for winter are:

• food preparation;
• insulation of the anthill.

When preparing food for food in winter, insects obtain and bring into their home dry fruits, seeds of various plants, as well as dried parts of the plants themselves . Insects drag the prepared provisions from one place to another all winter, which prevents it from deteriorating in conditions of high humidity, and the insects themselves do not die from hunger.

, eggs laid in summer are also a good help . They are sterile (in other words, trophic) and serve as good feeding during the cold season.

The next step is preparing the winter home. Ants move to the lower floors of the anthill , which are located at a depth of 1.5 to 2 meters, where they are quite comfortable. Constant soil temperature at such a depth promotes wintering in fairly good conditions. To insulate the anthill, insects carry various debris and soil out of it to the surface even before the onset of cold weather. This is necessary in order to cover your home with a so-called fur coat. This is how insects prepare for winter.

Why do ants live in colonies?

New facts about these creatures are still emerging, despite the fact that ants have been known to mankind since ancient times. Only recently have the ancient ancestors of these unusual creatures been identified. We all know what an ant looks like. The structure of an ant resembles a wasp. This is no accident. It was not only the study of the anatomy of these insects that made it possible to identify such a relationship. Many fossils of early forms have now been discovered that have even more in common with wasps. Photos of these ancient creatures sealed in amber confirm their similarity. Ant venom and strong jaws were inherited by modern ants from their ancient ancestors.

Huge bulldog ants have retained the sting that they inherited from their distant ancestors. This view is archaic. An ant bite is extremely painful. Most species of these insects have lost not only their stings, but also their wings in order to live on and under the surface of the earth. It was from the ancient wasps that they adopted the principle of community life, but over time their colonies acquired a more complex structure. Insects can communicate with each other. They leave trails of pheromones that help them find victims. Such communication is effective and worthwhile. Studying the substances that these insects secrete has made it possible to find out how ants find their way home. Pheromones help to identify strangers and drive them away from the anthill. Insects communicate with each other using rhythmic, low-frequency tapping sounds. This allows you to determine whether the encountered individual is a friend or an enemy. Some species of these insects use abdominal vibration in the process of communication.

Do ants sleep in winter?

Some species hibernate in winter. This condition can be called diapause, when the functions of internal organs suspend their work. Others remain active in winter, but it is somewhat reduced, and they need less food.

However, if there are larvae in the anthill, the adults continue to feed them. Throughout the warm period of the year, this species prepares for winter and arranges its larvae in “rooms” with an optimal microclimate.

In other species, adult individuals lead an active lifestyle in winter. As a rule, such representatives do not have diapause, so insects scurry around all year round. To prepare for winter, they stock up on seeds, dry fruits, and use all parts of plants.

Ant larvae require protein food for nutrition, and in winter it is impossible to find any living creatures. The only way out is to have time to hatch from the eggs in the spring and, before the onset of cold weather, turn into an adult and fall asleep in order to wake up again in the spring.

With the advent of protein food, the mother ant begins to lay eggs again and life is renewed. In northern latitudes, the larvae of certain ant species do not have time to develop into adults, so they spend the winter in the house hypothermic.

And especially “extreme” species that live at high altitudes, in the larval state, can overwinter up to two times before becoming an adult. Usually only larvae that have reached the third instar overwinter, as they are more resistant to temperature changes.

Moving north, the ants are limited only by a line where only the top layer, which is no more than 30 cm, freezes in winter

For example, the Kamchatka ant can set up a home at a depth of 10 to 40 cm, since it is important for it that in summer the soil temperature is at a comfortable level, sufficient for the development of its larvae.

Overwintering in northern harsh climatic conditions, these insects survive even with severe hypothermia - for some, the body temperature drops to minus 50 degrees! And the temperature of the larvae of one of the species living in Kolyma reached -58 degrees, while their metabolism did not stop.

What is this, a natural phenomenon? After all, at such a low temperature, according to the law of physics, all fluids in the body freeze. But not with ants.

With the onset of cold weather, the fluids in their bodies are filled with glucose, causing their body’s freezing point to constantly drop. Therefore, even in such extreme cold they remain liquids. Of course, in this state the ants are almost devoid of mobility; we can say that they have fallen asleep, but they still remain alive.

Anthill in winter

So, insects spend the entire warm period of the year preparing for winter. As soon as the queen consumes all the proteins in the spring, she immediately begins to lay a new clutch of eggs. The main task of worker ants is to fully feed the larvae so that new offspring will grow before the cold weather.

The information is worth summarizing. How ants prepare for winter:

• Insects search for food and store it in quantities that will last until spring.
• The larvae are actively fed so that the young reach 100% survival rate.
• In winter, insects check old chambers and dig new ones so that they can move there. Some species use such “rooms” for larvae.

Myrmecologists argue that the behavior of insects at different times of the year is influenced by external factors, such as daylight hours and changes in food composition.

Insects still prepare for the onset of cold weather, regardless of whether the region they live in is warm or cold. Life in the anthill continues, but not as actively as during the warm period of the calendar.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=HEhYgBYYBis%3Ffeature%3Doembed

In this video you will learn how these insects survive the winter.

Those ants that do not hibernate move quite little and also rarely eat food. But when the larvae spend the winter in the home, the adults continue to actively feed them. These types of ants carefully prepare for the winter period, collecting larvae in special chambers where it is possible to create a comfortable microclimate.

To survive, working individuals have been preparing food supplies since the fall, which should be enough before the snow begins to melt. With the onset of cold weather, the workforce carries out home repairs in those places where it is necessary. Their responsibilities also include maintaining a comfortable microclimate for the survival of the entire insect population.

This video shows what happens to ants after winter sleep.

Do ants sleep, die or work in winter?

As the weather gets colder, the colony slows down the pace of its usual existence. Despite this, hard workers do not stop fulfilling their duties. The uterus gives birth to offspring much less often or completely stops breeding them. Larvae that do not have time to transform into adults slow down their development. In winter, workers transfer the queen to a warm chamber and feed her with protein-rich foods. When consuming enough protein, she begins to lay trophic eggs. This type of egg does not give birth to larvae; they act as food for the queen.

In winter, some species enter a state of diapause, characterized by a slowdown in the action of the internal organs of insects. Other species may remain in a fairly vigorous state all winter, but their activity is slightly reduced compared to the warm season. They need less food. If there are larvae left in the anthill, large ants provide them with food. When the soil temperature rises to a positive level, they come out of diapause and are engaged in feeding the young and arranging their home.

Species of ants living in mild climates can come to the surface at above-zero temperatures, continue preparing supplies and breeding new larvae. They navigate by rising temperatures, warming up their home and shortening or increasing daylight hours.

Read also: How to pinch indoor chrysanthemums

The larvae, living at high altitudes in a state of torpor, can survive two winters and then grow into a large individual.

After workers have blocked all the entrances, a person cannot determine whether the ants are sleeping or not.

Life of an ant community

The small anthill that has been built is constantly expanding. Both its above-ground and underground parts are increasing. Construction never stops, so worker ants work all day long. The structure of an anthill is quite complex and includes not only a lot of transitions, but also the following elements:

• outer covering of branches and leaves,
• room heated by the sun
• ventilation ducts,
• lower wintering chamber,
• grain storage,
• underground garbage dump,
• queen's chambers,
• children's,
• storage room for caught caterpillars and insects,
• departments for keeping aphids.

The larger the colony, the more departments there are in such a stationary house. Ants overwinter in deep underground passages. The temperature there does not drop below 3-5 °C. Since ants reproduce continuously in order to constantly maintain the life of the colony, huge communities have several royal chambers. In appearance, any female is a constantly reproducing monster. Large anthills need several queens. The number of queens can reach 5-10 individuals to provide the colony with offspring. The development of the ant depends on the feeding habits of the larval form. Reproduction does not stop for a single day throughout the warm season.

Ant eggs are unique. Representatives of all castes immediately emerge from them, who subsequently build the anthill and perform work for its normal functioning. Working individuals create a nest and care for the new generation. They are small in size. Larger individuals are foragers that participate in the search for food. Another caste is represented by soldiers. Ants attack any creature that poses a danger to the community and are ready to die in the fight against the enemy. It is very difficult to list what ants eat in nature, since these insects are omnivores. The creatures' diet includes:

• any insect,
• juices and pulp of berries,
• seeds,
• carrion,
• some types of plants,
• dew,
• tree resin.

These insects can attack prey of any size. Insects can even cope with predators of the microcosm. An ant bite allows you to create a wound for injecting poison.

From early morning until late at night, foragers scour in search of food. Next, the food goes to the queen, larvae and other members of the colony. These creatures do not need to sleep, but they do not work at night.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=hlEUwKcCUnI%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Any forager can carry as much as the ant weighs. In some cases, these creatures carry loads that are 5-10 times their own weight. Recently, scientists were able to determine how much an ant weighs after drinking nectar or juice. They refer the nutrient fluid to other relatives. Therefore, the weight of the ant fluctuates significantly.

Representatives of some species can winter even in the harshest conditions, where the cold persists for 9 months a year. How ants prepare for winter has already been studied quite well. Insects clog all entrances and move to the lower sections, where the temperature is maintained, which is not destructive for insects. Ants do not sleep, their metabolic processes simply slow down.

Once you close your eyes for a minute, it’s already spring

Insects hibernate from November to April; in nature, it lasts 4-6 months. Overwintering of ants in a formicarium is at least twice as fast if this process is controlled. You can tell that a colony is getting ready for sleep by the following signs:

• Ants begin to form small groups inside the system of passages and do not respond to external stimuli.
• Food reserves accumulate, causing the insects' abdomens to enlarge.
• In general, a decrease in activity in the anthill can be noted.

These are sure signs of the onset of diapause in ants. Having noticed them, it is recommended to increase nutrition, slightly increase humidity, turn off or reduce artificial heating of the farm and choose one of three methods of hibernation:

1. Natural hibernation.

   It can last up to six months and requires almost no action from the keeper. You just need to periodically check the formicarium and feed the ants with syrup. During hibernation, it is better to cover the farm with thick fabric so that the light does not disturb the insects.

2. Wintering in the refrigerator.

   Lasts about two months. Simply place the formicarium in a vegetable drawer, after wrapping it with insulation and thick fabric that does not allow light to pass through. It is important to ensure that the temperature inside the farm remains at least +8°C, otherwise the insects will die. Periodically it is necessary to feed the ants with syrup and check their condition.

3. Express hibernation

   . Recommended for use only in extreme cases. Ideally, the more the colony sleeps, the better for its members. The method is practically no different from the second option, only the awakening is carried out earlier, and for at least two weeks they try to completely protect the colony from external influences, noise and vibration. It is carried out at the end of autumn, before the onset of frost.

How ants prepare for winter

In the life of the entire anthill, preparation for the difficult winter period is an important stage. All the efforts of ants since spring are aimed at accumulating resources to survive the winter and produce offspring before the onset of frost. At the same time, many insects do not hibernate in winter, but are active, although not as much as in summer. How little workers prepare for winter has been studied by many scientists and amateur myrmecologists who prefer to keep these insects in the house.

If we talk about food preparation, ants extract and carry dry fruits, various seeds, and parts of plants for storage in their home during the winter. They carry provisions from place to place throughout the winter period. This prevents it from spoiling when exposed to high humidity, and prevents the ants from starving to death.

In the cold season, the eggs laid by the queen in the summer are a good help. They do not contain fruits, they are called trophic, and they serve as feeding in the cold.

As for the winter house, insects move to its lower floors, located in the deep layers of the soil. At a depth of about 2 meters they are quite comfortable. Constantly maintained temperature at the proper level ensures that the ants overwinter under normal conditions. In order to insulate the house for wintering, even before the onset of cold weather, debris and soil are removed from it to the surface. This is necessary so that the housing appears under a kind of fur coat.

Life of an anthill in winter

Ants in winter

With the arrival of cold weather, life in the colony slows down. Ants become less active in winter, but continue to live, performing their daily duties. The queen begins to give birth less often or stops laying eggs altogether during this period, and the larvae and pupae slow down their development.

Without a constant source of grass feeding, aphids die, and the ants feed on the reserves accumulated over the summer. Some people fall asleep in winter so as not to waste their energy.

With the onset of a thaw, a special squad of scout insects opens several entrances to allow fresh, warm air to enter their home. The first signs of spring help them finally wake up - a large amount of moisture from melting snow. The upper tiers of an ant's home are often flooded with melt water.

When ants wake up after winter, restoration work to repair their home awaits them. In addition, they will have to drive out from the upper floors of their house those insects that found shelter there during the winter cold. Thanks to the coordinated work of the entire ant family, the anthill is rebuilt from year to year and increases in size.

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What do ants store?

Food reserves are made by all types of wintering ants - these plant and animal supplies are very helpful for insects in late autumn, when the anthill is already covered with snow, but the temperature in it is not yet too low.

Ants are little hard workers. During almost all the warm months from spring to summer, ants work tirelessly so that during the winter this large family does not experience discomfort in their “apartment” building. In the spring, the queen ant, having refreshed herself with protein food, begins laying eggs. The responsibilities of worker ants are distributed as follows:

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• stocking food in sufficient quantities (to last for the entire winter);
• feeding the larvae until new individuals emerge completely;
• preparing new chambers and checking and repairing old ones for the safe overwintering of larvae and adults.

Ants stock up on food

The main part of winter food for insects consists of plant products that retain their nutritional value for a long time:

1. plants' seeds;
2. flowers;
3. kidneys;
4. green soft stems.

The ants carefully protect these reserves from damage: they constantly move them from place to place so that the supplies do not disappear when the upper layers of the anthill get wet due to temperature changes.

Sweet-toothed ants, even in winter, do not want to deny themselves their favorite treat - the sweet secretion secreted by aphids. As many as thousands of these insects go to the anthill for the winter. However, aphids do not live there for long. Without fresh food, they quickly die. But they manage to “pamper” the ants with a sweet dessert.

Ant collects aphids

In addition to plant food, hardworking insects also harvest protein - the queen ant in the summer, well-fed period, lays so-called “trophic” eggs, which do not develop, but retain their nutritional potential. With these protein substances, ants maintain their strength during the long winter.

In addition to the ants themselves, numerous neighbors spend the winter in their large house: moths with larvae, various beetles. This company coexists in an anthill, feeding each other. Ants feed on the sweet nutritious secretion secreted by insects, and they, in turn, use the winter reserves of their working neighbors. Such mutual assistance helps them winter safely.

Ants from the northern regions have quite extreme conditions for wintering and their body reacts in a special way to its strong cooling. When the temperature drops, sugary substances concentrate in large quantities in insect cells. The more there are, the easier it is for ants to tolerate the cold.

Winter neighbors

In addition to the owners of the anthill themselves, aphids, all kinds of beetles, moths and the larvae of the above insects also live in their neighborhood. They help ants survive in winter, since, for example, aphids secrete a sweet nutritious enzyme, which, as is already known, ants convert into glycerol.

But there are also neighbors who cause great harm to their owners by eating food supplies and larvae. Many species of insects, hiding from the cold, find shelter in dwellings abandoned by ants during the winter, located on the surface of the earth.

These are such interesting hard-working ants, who try to make the most of all the opportunities that the environment gives them in order to continue to live and reproduce.