How do you rid your kitchen of ants? ItвЂ™s really quite simple. There are 130 species of ants known in New England and scientists think there may be another 20 more species or so just waiting for us to discover them. ThereвЂ™s far more to the ant world than those you spot on the counter. Seed dispersal would fall by as much as 70 percent if these ants were removed from the forest. In this mutualistic relationship, the ants get a great food source and the plant seeds are dispersed and sown in good soils. The ants feed on this outer shell, leaving the seed within intact. The seeds have a special coating, rich in fat and proteins called the elaiosome. The common forest ant, Aphaenogaster rudis, collects seeds from spring wildflowers such as trillium, bloodroot, and violets. That topsoil is perfect for seeds to take root. Despite their diminutive size, they can create about an inch of topsoil in just a few hundred years. вЂњHere in New England, ants are the prime movers and creators of soil вЂ“ not earthworms,вЂќ said Gotelli, in a recent University of Vermont news release. TheyвЂ™re garbage collectors, farmers, and ranchers. These ants have become more like a non-native, invasive species and have changed the social makeup between colonies to create super-colonies.вЂќДЄnts are not just pests, though. 'But in urban situations, lots and lots of nests are connected by trails, with thousands of queens in just one colony, probably millions of workers. 'If you go into the forest, the colonies are very small вЂ“one queen, maybe 100 ants,' said Buczkowski in a recent news release. Grzesiek Buczkowski, a biologist at Purdue University, found that the odorous house ant has adapted to urban life.

The long-term population changes in some birds, such as common nighthawks, may even be tied to these nuptial flights as important food sources. Some of these flights can be massive and spectacular. The males die after mating and each new queen forms a new colony. When they mature, they leave the nest en masse on what is called a nuptial flight. When the colony has grown to a robust size, the queen will produce winged queens and males. Without a queen ruling the colony, the entire system falls into chaos and the colony disappears. Small workers tend the nest and find food, while large workers defend the nest and food stores. With a few species, such as carpenter ants, eggs develop into specialized groups of workers.

The oldest workers are tasked with foraging outside of the nest, maintaining the nest, and defending it from predators and other ants. With many species, young workers attend to the queen and care for eggs and pupae, while older sisters feed and care for the larvae. The pace of work rises with the temperature. Most species become active in late March or April in our region. Because they are so tiny they are very sensitive to temperature. They live for just a few days to perhaps a few weeks, while queens can live for years to even decades in some species.ДЄnt colonies overwinter underground or within rotten wood, waiting for spring. The workers are sterile females dedicated to providing for the queen and the rest of the closely related ants in the colony. Each worker is just a small part of the colony, which together with other workers and a queen, forms a sort of super-organism. Nicholas Gotelli, a professor of biology at the University of Vermont and coauthor of A Field Guide to the Ants of New England, equates workers to the leaves of a tree. Each ant species has a specific chemical it uses to mark trails.

They may have traveled as far as 50 feet, following scent trails left by other workers from the nest to the bounty. Named for the faint smell (described as over-ripe bananas) that they emit when squeezed, the odorous house ants in your kitchen are workers. Whatever you call them, these little ants are likely to be visiting your nest soon. Myrmecologists, scientists that study ants, know these small kitchen ants as Tapinoma sessile, but to most of us theyвЂ™re odorous house ants, or sugar ants. Seeking the open sugar bowl or the drops of maple syrup left on the kitchen counter, theyвЂ™re a sure sign that winter has finally drifted away. Spring is on our doorstep, and so are the ants.

The ant getting sugar story