Argentine Ants
Everything You Need To Know About Argentine Ants
Argentine ants are a non typical species, prone to building makeshift nests out of foliage, beneath boards and foundations, and between stones or cement. The colony moves often, as temperatures fluctuate and food supplies dwindle. When they do decide to nest underground, they choose the softest, most pliable earth, (the top soil in potted plants is often ideal), and nest shallow at never more than six inches deep. They are merely too busy, and with too much gypsy spirit, to be more elaborate than this. When the going gets tough, the argentine ant gets going.
Native to the warm climates for which they are named, argentine ants were accidentally introduced to North America as stowaways on shipments of coffee beans en route to New Orleans. From there, the little travelers set out on foot to ravage the warm, southern countryside. When I say ravage, I mean pillage, swarm, destroy, and kill innocent livestock, all in the name of territorial dominance.
These tiny ants find safety and strength in numbers. Every other species of ant views their neighbors colony as an enemy and a threat, even those of their own kind. They will not tolerate one another, and a mistaken infringement on the wrong side of the line means a fight to the death. Argentine ants, however, have no such rivalry with one another, and rather rally together for the benefit of their own species. Swarming into an unstoppable mass, this united army can take out a termite nest, a paper wasp hive, a poultry nest, and of course any and all other species of ant who dare to make their presence known. Aggressive to say the least, the argentine ant has nearly destroyed California’s horned lizard population. By killing off the ant species native to California, the argentine ant has thrown off the lizards pallet, as he will only eat ant s native to his area. They are starving to death, and have become an endangered species.
There is no love lost for most people who have had the distinct opportunity to witness a swarm of argentine ants gnawing their gardens and crops to shreds, but these ants do have a rather remarkable social structure. They survive by depending upon one another. The feed each other, mouth to mouth, a liquid dilution of condensed nutrients derived from the feed. One eats, the food is digested through the first stomach and is then transferred to the second stomach. From here, it makes its way to a special exit duct, for a fellow ant to ingest. They swap this feeding procedure, and would die without one another. It was once said by a famous scientist that we look up for our answers, but down to the ants for our most practical solutions.