discover

Did you know that ants are one of the most successful groups of animals on Earth?

There are more than 12,000 species of ants and they can be found in every continent except Antarctica. We all know ants. They’re crawling around everywhere, minding their own business (usually). But there’s a lot we don’t know about these fascinating creatures.

Here are ten fun facts about ants:

1. There are more ants on Earth than any other type of creature.
2. The average ant colony consists of between 20,000 to 40,000 individuals.
3. Ants are incredibly strong for their size. They can lift objects 50 times their own weight.
4. Ants communicate with each other using chemical signals called pheromones.
5. Worker ants can live for up to 7 years, while queen ants can live for up to 20 years.
6. Some species of ant can travel long distances – up to 6 miles (10 km) in a single day.
7. Ants are very important pollinators and help spread pollen from flower to flower as they search for food.
8. Some queen ants can lay up to 800 eggs a day.
9. The largest known ant colony was discovered in 2000 near the city of Melbourne, Australia – it consisted of over 300 million individual ants and stretched for 2,800 miles (4,500 km)!
10. Fire ants cause over $4 billion worth of damage a year! More