You might not like ants when they get in your food or crawl in your house, but they are pretty interesting insects. Ants live in colonies like bees. Each ant has a special job. The queen ant lays eggs, while the male ants mate with the queen. The other female ants are worker ants. They build the ant hill, find food and even act as soldier ants. Soldier ants protect the colony and sometimes attack other colonies.
If soldier ants attack and conquer a colony, they carry away eggs from that colony. When the eggs hatch, those ants become slave ants, doing work in the new colony!
Fun Facts About Ants for Kids
- Ants can carry 20 times their own body weight. That’s like you lifting a car! They bring leaves, crumbs and dead insects back to the colony to eat.
- Carpenter ants build nests in logs or even houses. They chew through wood to make the nests. They can cause damage to houses.
- Red fire ants have a painful sting. They build mounded ant hills.
- An ant colony has several tunnels and rooms.
- When a queen ant dies, the whole colony usually dies within a few months.
Ant Vocabulary
- Colony: group
- Attack: fight
- Conquer: beat or win
- Mounded: rounded
Learn More All About ants
Watch this fascinating documentary video of the life of desert ants:
A video about desert ants and their nature.
Ant Q&A
Question: Are ants dangerous?
Answer: Most ants can sting, but they aren’t dangerous, although there is a bulldog ant in Australia that has a sting that can hurt or even kill a person.
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