Ants are among the oldest creatures surviving on the earth. They basically live in colonies or in small nests where they are controlled by a single queen or two or three queens. The colony is basically managed by the female workers that are not able to reproduce and they collect food to take care of the eggs and act as soldiers to prevent the invaders to attack. Now the life span of an ant varies according to the breed. For example, the average life span of a black garden ant is 15 years. Whereas pharaoh ants can live up to twelve months.
Ant’s life duration:
There is not a single factor that contributes to determining the life cycle of an ant. It is determined by various factors like the particular species, the type of the mound they built, what kind of caste order they have in the colony, what kind of predators they have, what external circumstances are and many more.
Time period based on the caste system:
Ants casually don’t live much but based upon their duties they can have different life spans with respect to each other. Depending on the law and order the ants have maintained in their colony their life span can be categorized as:
Male ants: As the only duty of male ant is to play a part in reproduction so they do not live much and they die after breeding with the female queen.
The Queen ant: The queen ant is the most important part of the colony why? Because they are the only fertile females that can reproduce and can carry on the ant legacy and hence they perform the task of egg generation and reproducing new ants. Therefore, they do not die soon rather than they love for a multiple of years depending upon the particular breed.
The Worker ants: worker ants consists of all those females that are unable to reproduce which means they are sterile and perform all duties for colony ranging from very basic to the complex ones like nourishing the eggs, collecting food and guarding the nest or mound, etc. therefore, their life span is from some weeks to months.
What happens to a lonely ant?
A case study:
A research carried out on carpenter ants in a laboratory showed several negative impacts on the ants when they were isolated. They tested different groups of ants like one alone ant, other in a pair and then other in a four and so on. To their amaze, the results were quite shocking. The ants which are isolated hardly lived from 5 -6 days whereas ants that lived together live up to Sixty Five days. The researches stated that the ants seem not familiarized to live alone and they don’t know how to do duties alone. Isolated ants also showed a very high level of hyperactivity than other ants which means they were continuously moving around trying to get out their nest. And due to this hyperactivity, the isolated ants feed themselves more due to rigorous body movement but they can’t still able to process it by their gut.
Reason for poor digestion:
As carpenter ants have two stomachs one they use for themselves and they use the other to share the food with colony members. The structure they use for storing the food is “crop” and is not digested by the ant immediately rather they use it to share it with other colony members. But now when ants were isolated they didn’t recognize how to behave when they found the absence of the other ants. Also, some have said that some gut bacteria were essentially needed by ants when they exchange food which was no available to the isolated ants.
Loneliness leads to death:
Apart from the physical factor, the general concept of loneliness when applied to other organisms including human beings as well as drastic negative impacts on the condition of health. That general feeling of fear of being alone leads to mental disabilities and the person becomes introvert. It also leads or psychic issues like depression and other cardiovascular or cardio neural disease.
What is the average lifetime for the ants?
The ant’s life cycle is determined by several reasons like their breed, their place in the colony, the external circumstances and the secure availability of food and shelter.
It varies from the queen ant to the worker ants. Queen ants live the most for up to years in some species whereas worker ants have the lifespan of weeks to months. Whereas, the male ants have the least life cycle they die just after mating with the female queen.
Ant facts
- Ants are among the oldest creatures on the face of the earth and there are twelve thousand species of the ants are known.
- Worker ants can invade far places from their nest up to 700 feet and still remember where to go.
- For every human being, there are 1 million ants available. Remarkable!
- Ants can swim and survive water by floating for 24 hours.
- Ants speak by tapping their antennas and feet in a specific pattern which is understandable by other ant members.
- The largest ant mound found was spread onto three lac seven hundred and fifty miles.
- They have the longest life span as compared to any other insect.
- Ants are as old as dinosaurs.
- Humans learned the concept of farming from ants.
- Ants can bear weight up to 50 times because its small body provides a greater cross-sectional area.
- Ants invade other ants and make them to work for themselves.
- There is a specie of ant whose venom is most dangerous among insects.
Question and answers
How long do ants live without food?
Ants can hardly survive without food. They can live up to 4 days without food in the presence of water.
How do ants live without a queen?
Worker ants can live without a queen for days and weeks. When the queen dies the colony ultimately dies in a sense that there will be no new members to serve. But if you want to start a farm that can survive for a few weeks it can be done by merely working ants.
How long do ants live without water?
If the food availability (dry food) is enough most ants and other insects can survive from 7-10 days approximately.
How long do ants live without air?
Ants do not exchange gases through lungs instead they exchange the gases through their skin with the help of tiny tubules therefore if oxygen is present in the air ants cant die.
How long do ants live without ahead?
It’s an amazing fact of the ants that they can live without their head. They may even show some response when stimulated but the will eventually get dehydrated and due to malnutrition they will eventually die.
How long do ants live in the house?
If the ants have made a colony in your house then their life span would be greater otherwise it can be for a maximum of 15-17 days.
How long do ants live in water?
Ants can live in water for approximately 24 hours. As they exchange gases through tubules they will ultimately get drowned.
How long do ants live indoors?
As in homes ants have maximum shelter and food storage they tend to live more than ants that are outdoors and live for two to three years in a colony.
How long do ants live alone?
Ants are social animals and they can’t survive alone. A study showed that ants when isolated survived for up to only six days.