The domestic ant is an ordinary yellow ant.
The big-headed ant is the so-called red ant.
Monamorium pharaon is L., also known as house yellow ant, house ant, kitchen ant and house yellow ant. It is only about 2 mm long, light yellow-brown, with two abdominal handles in the abdomen, and the back of the second half of the abdomen is grayish brown, which is distributed in many cities in China.
The size of ant colony varies with species, and there are 35 ~ 1400 small domestic ants.
This kind of ant is small, reddish-brown, and has a keen sense of smell. Because it releases formic acid when crawling, its action route is relatively fixed. Like to eat sweets, dairy products, high-protein and high-fat foods. Ants are very selective to the environment and room temperature, and are afraid of cold. When the room temperature is lower than 6℃, it will not go out for food, and it is resistant to muscle thirst, strong in reproduction and fast. Most of them live in the cracks of ceramic tiles in kitchens, bathrooms and other places.
House ants are usually brought from outside, such as furniture and decorative materials. This kind of ant likes to live in a humid environment, usually hiding in the cracks of tiles, cement and pipes in brick-concrete buildings, and then entering the kitchen and bathroom. Red ants breed very fast, usually two or three nests a month, and midsummer is their mass breeding period. This kind of ants sometimes climb on people and bite them. After being bitten, little red dot appeared and itched. As this ant can spread diseases, parents should pay more attention to their children.
source
First, it is carried by convalescents who travel on business and travel to other places and business people from other places; The second is to bring a lot of building materials; The third is brought by some bonsai flowers. Due to the warm winter and climate change in recent years, red ants gradually adapt to the regional environment and survive, and the invasion area is expanding year by year.
harm
Because the red ants in the room move around, the whole body is naturally covered with various bacteria and viruses and some parasitic eggs. If the leftover food is not properly kept, it will be attacked by ants. When ants crawl on food, they will release a lot of formic acid to pollute food, which will easily cause gastrointestinal discomfort and various intestinal diseases after eating. Because red ants like to eat dairy products, lactating babies are more likely to be bitten by ants, and red spots appear under the skin, which is extremely itchy. After scratching, the spots fester and fester, which is not easy to heal. At the same time, it also affects people's normal rest and sleep, and brings a lot of trouble and inconvenience to people's lives.
Ant clearance
(1) Do a good job in indoor hygiene, and completely stop eating and drinking water;
(2) Seal the joints of ceramic tiles and protect the holes such as water, heating pipes, ventilation holes and sewer holes.
(3) disinfection with chemical drugs. In view of the high density of red ants indoors, it is necessary to use drug retention spraying. After rapidly reducing the density of ants, cockroach and ant baits are regularly put in to trap and kill them until they are completely extinct.
Big-headed ant [1] English name: big-headed ant
Identification features: adult worker ants are about 3.5mm long, while underage worker ants are about 0.7mm long in abdomen and chest, with head length of 1 mm, head and abdomen in dark brown, and abdomen and chest in brown. Adult worker ants have prominent jaws, and young worker ants have a circle of protrusions on the back of their heads. Abdominal 1 and 2 segments are separated, namely the handle segment and the posterior handle segment. The antenna has 12 nodes, and the three nodes at the end extend outward to form a short rod shape. There are no two pendants in the middle part of the lip base; There are no protrusions on the sides.
Biological characteristics: it is found in cities and dense forests, and it is the most abundant in wet and shady places. If the water source is tight, activities will be restricted; Breeding is faster in rainforests and dry vines. In hot areas, it is more active at night. The expansion of the number and scope is mainly through the separation of the new population from the mother population, rather than through marriage and flight reproduction, so the spread is limited. However, the survival of the new group may be helped by the mother group in food and defense. Supergroups can cover dozens of hectares.
Origin: South Africa. Now it is distributed in almost all tropical and humid areas.
China Distribution: It has been found in Fujian, Guangdong, Taiwan Province and Hongkong. Irregular distribution. The altitude is also uncertain, which is occasionally found in the forest at the southern foot of Dayao Mountain in Guangxi 1700m, but mostly occurs at low altitude. Found in Dinghushan and Qixingkeng nature reserves in Guangdong.
Cause and harm of introduction and diffusion: The natural population of this species has been found in nature reserves in Guangdong, Hainan and Hong Kong, which should be paid special attention to. It can replace local invertebrates, especially ants, and affect local biodiversity. In Mauritius, local ants have become extinct; In northeastern Brazil, the number of local geckos and lizards has dropped sharply. Because the big-headed ant feeds on honey dew made by aphids and scale insects, it protects a large number of pests on pineapple, coffee, oranges and other fruits and indirectly harms crops. They can also directly harm the roots of plants, such as strawberries. It is also found that it often haunts hospitals and houses, endangering the protective layer of cables, water pipes and telephone lines.
Prevention and control methods: Try to avoid using traditional pesticides that have great side effects on the environment. Insect growth regulator (IGR) can degrade the ovarian tissue of queen ants. It can be controlled by applying safe and green new pesticides. The most effective way seems to be to protect the intact natural habitat with various microorganisms and invertebrates. In China, it is necessary to study its ecology and its relationship with other populations in order to find more scientific control methods.
Harvest ants
harvest ant
A generic term for several different kinds of ants that collect seeds and leaves. Harvest Meso species, collect seeds, peel and store them. Leaf-cutting ants (Atta) collect leaves to cultivate fungi as food. Some species of the genus Pheidole have a strong sense of taste and can be used to crush harvested seeds. Pogonomyrmex stung to death.