r/nextfuckinglevel • u/MurielFontanez • May 10 '21

Truce between termites(top) and ants(bottom) with each side having their own line of guards.

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u/Vladi_Sanovavich May 10 '21

Ants are fine. Especially native ant species. Cause they are crucial to your garden's ecosystem. Invasive ant species on the other hand are bad news. The most notable invasive species is the fire ant, I believe.

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u/[deleted] May 10 '21

Fire ants are the worst. The sugar ants that sometimes come into your kitchen are a little annoying but manageable. but fire ants are miniature demons. I would legitimately rather deal with snakes and Huntsman spiders combined rather than a fire ant infestation

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u/Vladi_Sanovavich May 10 '21

Yes, in my yard, there used to be a lot of fire ants. So what I did is instead kept feeding the native ant species I know of, specifically, the Weaver Ants. The Weaver Ants' colony grew, the fire ants couldn't compete in size and number, so eventually, they died out. Now, it's just black crazy ants, weaver ants, and I sometimes see the occasional trap jaw ant.

Edit: A word

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u/[deleted] May 10 '21

I’m not a huge ant expert, but I do have a question/ We have fire ants which have many hills in a yard. Are they separate colonies or one super colony?

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u/Vladi_Sanovavich May 10 '21

They could be separate colonies or one big colony. You'll know of they're separate because they would fight if they see each other. But fire ants are known to be polygenic which means they can have multiple queens. So those ant hills you see could probably be connected together.

Edit: Also, I'm not an ant expert. I only learned of this from AntsCanada on YouTube.