Pharaoh Ants
Common Name
Scientific Name
Pharaoh Ant
Monomorium pharaonis
Identification:
The pharaoh ants have three different castes, the worker, the queen, and winged males. The workers are very small, 1/16 of an inch in length displaying a yellowish to brown color, and have a slightly darker thorax. The queen is slightly darker in color than the workers and is 1/8 of an inch long. The winged males are black and are about 1/16 of an inch long.
Biology:
The colony of the Pharaoh ant consists of thousands of workers, winged males, several reproductive females, and multiple queens. Although there are multiple swarmers (winged males) no swarms of reproduction occur with this species of ant. They reproduce inside the nest all year around. This type of ant also participates in an action called “budding”, which is similar to what other ants do when they create satellite nests. In the case of the Pharaoh ant, this is when they create an entirely new nest, with a few as five workers, ten pre-adults (larvae and pupae), and one queen, they migrate to another location and build a new nest. The lifespan of the Pharaoh ant is much different than those of other species; the workers will only live about nine to ten weeks, the males (after mating) live for three to five weeks, and the queen will live from four to twelve months.
Habits:
Like all ants pharaoh ants live in a colony, which consist of workers, about 1500 to 2500, and multiple queens, some large colonies can have up to 200 queens. A single seed colony can populate a large office block, almost to the exclusion of all other insect pests, in less than six months.
The nests these ants create can be very small they can be located between sheets of paper, in clothes or laundry, furniture, and food. They normally make their nests in wall voids, under floors, behind baseboards, in trash containers, under stones, in cement or stone wall voids, and light fixtures. They climate this type of ant prefers is dark, warm areas near hot water pipes and heating tapes, in bathrooms, kitchens, intensive care units, operating rooms, and so forth. Pharaoh ants are sometimes found foraging in drains, toilets, washbasins, bed pans and other unsanitary sites, they have also been found in sealed sterile dressing, intravenous drip systems, other medical equipment, and even patients wounds. Obviously this can cause a major problem to the hospitals they create their nests in, it has even been known for these ants to spread infection and cause electrical interference.
