Pharaoh look a lot like thief ants and is yellowish to light brown in colour. They have black markings on their abdomen and their body consists of three parts. Pharaoh ants, due to their size are very tiny in stature and for this reason, can travel considerable distances with ease. They have a maximum length of about 2 mm. They have a darker color abdomen which makes it quite distinct.
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On the other hand, the worker ant has a similar appearance but does have a non-functional stinger to generate pheromones. The very narrow part between the abdomen and the thorax also known as the petiole has two nodes. The eyesight of the pharaoh ant is quite poor, with only roughly 30ish ommatidia
Life cycle
The queen ant is capable of laying hundreds of eggs in her entire lifetime. This can reach about 10 to 12 eggs in a batch. The cockroach eggs have a quite fast hatch time and most eggs can hatch within about 5 days. These eggs are hatched in environments of relative humidity. The entire stage from egg to reaching a sexually mature age for the pharaoh ants can take about 45 days in total. This can of course is affected by several factors.
Colony structure
Pharaoh ants will make nests in a familiar structure and this entails that most of the ants are subdivided in hierarchies. These colonies can break off or subdivide into smaller fractions can satelliting. Once the colony finds a better nest then the newly formed colony will go to the new habitat. Pharaoh ants will use three types of pheromones to make sure that the colony survives whenever it ventures outside. These pheromones can more or less vary depending on the function, but the main goal of this is marking food sources and having a steady trail of pharaoh ants carry the food source back to the nest which can be in different places. There is also another kind of pheromone called the negative pheromone and this is utilized bt the ants to actually deter ants from visiting these areas and acts as a warning sign whenever there is danger spotted.
Invasive Species
Pharaoh ants are quite a fascinating species. These ants are known as budding ants meaning that these ants do not swarm a place but will enter a space with their satellite colonies. Since their nests require a warm space with a lot of humidity you can expect to find these ants almost exclusively indoors. Most f these pharaoh ants are quite notorious for being present in many medical facilities. These ants are attracted to warmth, food, and shelter and will look for ways to constantly expand beyond its original colony size. If you need help with ant control contact the professionals from Ant Control to receive intervention from licensed and insured professionals. Call 647-933-5346