What ants are in your area?

theotherguy

theotherguy

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You can tell alot about an area by what kind of ants live there. Ants are generally local insects that live in specific climate zones. I didn't fully realize this until I went to the cayman islands and saw nothing but these little yellow ants, and then traveled to germany and saw strange orange-looking ants.

Here in north texas we used to just have small black ants (aka "sugar ants") and large red ants, but ever since the 30's, we've had the very violent and voracious fireants, which came here in legend on the tire of a car from south america. Now fireants have taken over all the other ants. They killed the red ants, which in turn killed the horned frog, and they've almost pushed the black ants out of existence. Fireants are also very painful when they bite you, and their mounds are indistinct above ground but truly massive (an average of 6-foot diameter) underground.

I'm interested in hearing what kind of ants live in your areas.
 
I live in the Netherlands and we have mainly those little black ants here. There are some red ants (not very fierce nor big) but they only live in the woods.

Great thread.
 
We have 3 main kinds of ants in the area:

1)Small black ants that like to creep in the house during the summer to drink water after a shower. They also live under head sized rocks in my rock garden.

2)Small red ants(might be just young black ants seen in the 1st type).

3)Carpenter Ants, basically the small black ants increased in size 4x with a bigger head. When I was younger I would catch a bunch of these and throw them in a glass container to duke it out in a FFA deathmatch. The victor was released. :D

There's also winged red ants but those are rare and can be killed by just pouring water on them.
 
Well I live in Virgina... Really I don't pay attention to what type of ants we have here but I would have to guess Black ants are the general species around this territory.

Now when I go down to visit my Grandparents in Florida (Hudson Florida that is) they have a lot of fire ants down there. Let me tell you one thing, those things can bite!
 
South Florida

lots of various types of fire ants ranging from the common tiny ones to the rarer really big ones the size of small roaches

around houses there are also these tiny orange black ants that love cereal and grease for some reason

also sugar ants too, but the fireants outnumber them by alot.
 
French Ninja said:
We have 3 main kinds of ants in the area:

1)Small black ants that like to creep in the house during the summer to drink water after a shower. They also live under head sized rocks in my rock garden.

2)Small red ants(might be just young black ants seen in the 1st type).

3)Carpenter Ants, basically the small black ants increased in size 4x with a bigger head. When I was younger I would catch a bunch of these and throw them in a glass container to duke it out in a FFA deathmatch. The victor was released. :D

There's also winged red ants but those are rare and can be killed by just pouring water on them.
Click to expand...


That is EXACTLY what I have around my area!

I live right across from New York State (I live in Canada, Niagara Falls, it's about a 5 minute walk from my house to the border..), so I guess it's in a big general area :)
 
French Ninja said:
We have 3 main kinds of ants in the area:

1)Small black ants that like to creep in the house during the summer to drink water after a shower. They also live under head sized rocks in my rock garden.

2)Small red ants(might be just young black ants seen in the 1st type).

3)Carpenter Ants, basically the small black ants increased in size 4x with a bigger head. When I was younger I would catch a bunch of these and throw them in a glass container to duke it out in a FFA deathmatch. The victor was released. :D

There's also winged red ants but those are rare and can be killed by just pouring water on them.
Click to expand...

Yeah those are more or less like the ones we have here...which isn't too far from Dog and the US border...maybe a good 45min drive. (I live in Hamilton btw).
 
45 minute drive! It's 25 minutes.. tops!

BTW, Hamilton Tiger Cats - Yay!
 
Haha yeah, i suppose. It's been a while. I guess the trip seems longer when you're younger.
 
Shitloads of these things

Ant-30267.jpg
 
Normal... ones. FFS, it's Michigan -- nothing is extreme in Michigan. Except fishing.

EXTREME FISHING.
 
Qonfused said:
Normal... ones. FFS, it's Michigan -- nothing is extreme in Michigan. Except fishing.

EXTREME FISHING.
Click to expand...
Take a fish out of a lake with 500 fish, and tag it..then the person to catch that fish first wins. Anything goes.

I can see it now. One guy running his boat into the other guy, which is the last one to fish....while the rammer dives into the water, and goes to get the fish bare handed...when all he ends up getting, is snagged by the guy who got rammed. He gets pulled out of the water, and a hockey-esque fight ensues on a boat.

I can see that being on TV.
 
Video would be better.

Anyway, around here, as far as I know, we have:

Small swarmy black ants
larger less-swarmy black ants
and enormous carpenter ants.
 
We have numerous varieties, which I'll describe in lame detail here. These names are only partially accurate.

"Piss Ants": small, purple, black, purple coloration. Stink really bad if you stir them up, hence the name.
"Argentine Ants": very small, all black ants that are, well so small they almost don't seem like a pest. Note: driven away from my home two years ago never to return.
"Carpenter Ants": good sized, all black ants. They'll tear up peoples houses, but the only time I've actually seen them consume wood was very deep in the woods and seriously, the sawdust was leaking out of that tree like water. Bite enough to get your attention.
"Road Ants": medium sized, all black ants most often found (noticed, anyway) on the road. They run super fast in controlled bursts.
"Red Ants": Built exactly like the carpenter ants but all red, they are nomadic and I've only seen them a couple of times. Once, they had a large 'battle' with the local carpenter ants on an old house of ours. My mom was throwing bleach on them for the total WWI warfare effects. Seriously, like overnight, the red ants were totally gone and there were just the charred (not from the bleach) remains of the carpenters. They didn't even consume them. Territory?
"Dirt Ants": slightly smaller than carpenter ants typically found in the more barren foothills of our area where they maintain apparently extensive underground homes. They are both purple and black (haven't seen them for a while since I moved to the woods). They are rather invasive and will attack/bite if you stir them up. The bites are annoyingly painful at best.
 
giant21xr.jpg


I tried to fight them off but...

giant49nz.jpg


D:
 
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, this reminds me of a old, old movie named "Them" about giant ants. Anyone remember this? Rofl.
 
I think we have a lot of variety around here, but I'm just not sure.
 
I live in Korea and there are no ants here. All thanks to the city goverment's Project Exterminate.
 
That along with redbacks, the top 3 most venomous snakes, bluebottle and box jellyfish, whitetails, scorpions, bert newton, blue ringed octopie, sharks and the ever so loverly funnel web we rock it the hardest with the hardcore animals.
 
Two kinds: Wood ants (big) and Sand ants (small). I don't know their scientific names.
 
I love it when i find two colonys of different ants next to each other, or at least close by. Because i mix them up in various ways and start a war, it ****ing owns Watching them rip each other apart and carry them off.

I once had a full scale battle between SHITLOADS of tiny red ants and these MASSIVE (but fewer in number) big beasty black ants with huge heads and pincers.

I love ants.
 
Qonfused said:
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, this reminds me of a old, old movie named "Them" about giant ants. Anyone remember this? Rofl.
Click to expand...
That little girl screaming "Them. THEM!!" pissed me off.
 
Speaking of ants, the Discovery Channel is running two shows back to back about warring ant colonies. They just did Army Ants.
 
TollBooth Willie said:
Lucky bastards.
Click to expand...
But now who will take care of the bread crumbs on the ground? All the pigeons are dead because of bird flu. D:

Note: The pigeons are not actually dead.
 
Black ants, carpenter ants, brazilian fire ants.

I'm sure we've got others, but I can't name 'em.
 
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