The uterus is the dominant link in every anthill. She is responsible for the reproduction of new offspring. The queen ant is usually large in size. When ants appear in the house, you need to find the main female, also called the queen. This is the only way to completely get rid of pests. The uterus prepares the eggs. The young are usually cared for by worker ants. The uterus is several times larger than the serving representatives. The female is little active and constantly sits in the nest.
The ant queen is impressive in size
External characteristics: what are the features
The queen occupies the main place in the anthill and is located in the central part of the nest. It is the queen who is responsible for creating offspring and increasing the number of insects.
Black and orange ants have only one queen. The female does not take part in obtaining food. Doesn't leave the nest. The only goal is reproduction. The queen and the younger generation are looked after by workers.
House red ants can have a pair of queens. Females do not conflict with each other.
The female differs from working ants in size and body structure. The main females are twice as large as the others. They grow 4-4.5 cm in length, less often even more. The chest is wider due to the presence of flight muscles. The body is dark brown. The belly is lighter.
Due to its size, the uterus is less agile. Relatively motionless. The female practically never leaves the nest. Eats food brought by workers. Initially, the uterus has wings. This part of the body falls off when a colony forms on its own, or the female gnaws them off herself. This is a kind of additional food.
The queen constantly lays eggs
Unlike male representatives, the uterus emerges from fertilized eggs. Sometimes queens leave the nest and move to a new location to create another colony.
Ant "table of ranks"
Communication and mutual contact between fellow tribesmen is carried out using channels (signal and food). The colony is conventionally divided into “detachments”:
- Workers.
- Soldiers.
- Females.
- Males.
At the head of this legion is the queen, also known as the queen . The uterus has the largest size. This is a real egg production conveyor. The working group of ants is required to care for eggs and pupae, search for and prepare food, repair and strengthen the anthill. A detachment of guard ants, the so-called soldiers, perform protective functions, guard entrances and deal with strangers. Females and males are destined for the role of participants in the process of reproduction.
What are the features of the formation of an anthill
Male and female pupae are born each year. After mating, the female begins to look for a new place of residence to form a new colony of insects. Flights are carried out due to the presence of small wings.
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The insect begins to form a nest and lays its first eggs. Young individuals appear and search for food and build an anthill.
In some subspecies of insects, several queens live in an anthill at once, which do not compete with each other. There is no manifestation of aggression. Natural selection occurs. Females unable to reproduce become workers.
In red ants, the queen can live up to 25 years
In the nests of working representatives there are 9-16%. The remaining representatives are engaged in servicing the uterus and caring for the offspring. In some species, for example, red ants, the queen is long-lived and lives up to 19-25 years. During this time, the insect lays 400 thousand eggs. The main female sleeps and rests more than ordinary ants.
Division into classes
Even knowing what a queen ant looks like and how to get it, you may not be able to cope with the destruction of an ant colony in your home on your own. Therefore, it is better to entrust such work to professionals.
In other types, the division into classes is quite simple. When the queen lays eggs, she marks them with special pheromones. These substances inhibit the sexual development of the offspring. This is how working individuals appear.
When the colony becomes very large, the queen will not have time to mark all the eggs. This is how individuals ready for fertilization begin to appear. This is a natural process of population regulation in other colonies.
In domestic ants, the queen can be compared to a milk cow on a farm. Worker ants take care of her, but if she stops laying enough eggs, the queen can be killed. This is how natural selection occurs.
Can an ordinary ant become a queen?
Primitive ants do not have queens. This role is taken on by all females that are able to lay eggs. They live as long as their working counterparts. The lifespan of each specific colony directly depends on the oviparous females. If the females disappear, the entire colony will die out. After some time, the anthill will be empty.
A full-fledged queen lives longer and lays a lot of new eggs every year. An ordinary ant is not capable of becoming a queen, but can only temporarily take over the main functions. The colony is doomed to extinction without a queen.
Life cycle
Ants go through four stages of development:
- Egg.
- Larva.
- Pupa (sometimes a cocoon, called metamorphosis depending on the species).
- Adult.
The larvae do not have legs, but they can make minor movements, such as tilting their heads towards a food source when feeding. At this stage, the level of care and nutrition that the larvae receive determines their eventual adult form. When resources are limited, all larvae will develop into female worker ants.
However, if the colony has an adequate supply of food, some larvae receive better nutrition than others and develop into winged ones. Sexually mature female ants are destined to leave the anthill. At this stage, female winged ants are sometimes called “princess ants.”
What is the difference between a home anthill and a street one?
The main differences between a home and natural anthill are presented in the table.
| Home | Pharaoh ants are residents who take up residence in the house. Set up a home in a human house and any other warm buildings. They require an abundance of external food. They do not go into winter. The construction of the anthill occurs all year round. The queen reproduces new offspring 4-6 times a year. |
| Street | In nature, the construction of an anthill is seasonal. Protein food is required for the development of offspring. For the queen, one mating is enough to reproduce offspring many times in the future. Females capable of fertilization leave the home to create a colony. |
What is the lifestyle of a female
Females that are unable to fertilize become workers. There can be up to 150 queens in one anthill. The guilty individual will be killed by his fellows. Flight for mating occurs in the summer. By this time, young individuals hatch, capable of fertilization and having wings for further flight and creation of a new anthill.
Females have wings
Each female is fertilized only once. The stored seed is sufficient for further repeated reproduction of offspring. The fertilization fluid is stored in a special bag and is consumed throughout the life cycle.
After flying and mating, the queen can create a new colony or return back to the anthill. A chamber is being constructed to store the ovipositor. The life of ants lasts on average 22 years.
How to detect a nest in the house
To eliminate pests, you should find a nest with a queen for further destruction. This is quite difficult to do. To detect a chamber with a uterus you need:
- view the movement of insects in the room to find all entrances and exits;
- trace all the passages of the anthill, since it happens that the anthill itself is not in the house itself.
Look where the insects take their food. Finding the queen may require removing all flooring and trim. Move furniture if necessary.
How does fertilization occur in house ants?
Ants prefer to establish a colony in protected places. All insects divide their housing into several chambers:
- food warehouse;
- ovipositor chambers;
- Queen's room.
From this video you will learn how to catch a queen ant:
More often, the anthill is located under the floor covering, as well as in the space under the baseboards. When the house is rarely cleaned, the insect takes up space behind the furniture. House ants do not reproduce at will. A uterus is required. It is its destruction that leads to the death of the entire anthill.
Established colony
It should be noted that despite the royal title, the queen ant has no real power over the colony. She does not direct other ants or make decisions for the colony.
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Instead - like any other ant - it is motivated by instinct and a general understanding of how it can provide for the needs of the colony. Therefore, the queen is best understood as a reproductive element rather than a leader.
The only royal pampering she receives is having others bring her food and keep her clean. An anthill is a single organism, and individual individuals are its cells or organs; insects rarely survive on their own.
How to get rid of the uterus
To get rid of the queen, you first need to find the nest. Only after this can chemical insecticides be used.
It is permissible to use special aerosols, for example:
- Raptor;
- Get.
If the anthill is accessible, you can use boiling water, gasoline or turpentine. It is dangerous to do this at home due to its high flammability. You can also administer medications in the form of gels, powders, and baits. Some drugs are suitable for prevention.
How to catch
If you want to breed insects, you need to catch the queen. For this purpose, prepare a glass flask with cotton wool soaked in sweet water. You can wait for the queen purposefully when the flight takes place for the purpose of fertilization.
To breed insects, you first need to catch the queen
Queens without wings are better suited for incubation. This means that the insect has already been fertilized and is looking for a place to live. You should catch the female carefully, pushing the queen into the flask with the help of a thin twig. After a few days of settling in the incubator, the process of laying eggs will begin.
Gel farm
This is perhaps the case when this activity will be very interesting for children, and of course for adults as well.
For such a farm you need a flat container that can be closed with a lid and gelatin. You need to take 3 bags of gelatin (15 grams each), pour 0.5 liters of hot water and stir well until the gelatin completely melts. Next, we pour the mixture into a container, wait until it cools down and put it in the refrigerator until it hardens completely. We take it out of the refrigerator and wait until the gel reaches normal room temperature, and that’s it, the filler is ready. Remember that this filler is also food for goosebumps, so you don’t need to feed them.
