Tough guys

Workers of the Formica japonica ant weighing 0.004 g can walk while holding an object weighing 5 times the body weight in their mouth, and can even drag a 25-times heavier object along behind them. Ants work in teams to carry away very heavy things.

How many ants?

If you added together the weight of all the ants in the world, it would be MORE than the weight of all the human beings in the whole world.

Brainy insects

Ants have one of the largest brains of all insects. Scientists think that an ant's brain may have the same processing power as a Macintosh II computer. So ants are smart!

Ants can be farmers

Some kinds of ants keep herds of aphids & "milk" them for nectar-like food. The photo below shows what aphids look like. Aphids feed by sucking the sap from plants and leaves.

Gardeners too!

Other ants grow and look after special underground gardens, which they use for food.

Look after the kids

Ants look after young ants, feeding them & providing nursery care. They even keep the nest at a strict temperature to look after them. Then they take the younger ants and teach them the tricks of the trade.

Have an ant career

Ants all have specialized jobs to do, but if a lot of ants in a nest are killed, they can change career and learn a new job! They also work with other ants on massive group projects (like building, or carrying a huge dead object back to the nest). 

Join the army and see the world!

Ant nests have an army of specialized soldier ants whose job it is to protect the nest. They look after security, and warn off other ants, and insects, and animals.

Earth works!

Ants do a lot of digging, and move at least as much soil as earthworms do. Try lifting up a stone in the garden, or a slab of concrete paving. You may find that ants have tunnelled through and removed a lot of the soil underneath. Ants are so good at building tunnels that two teams can start digging a tunnel at each end, and they will meet exactly in the middle! They can also build water traps, to keep out the rain and stop the nest being flooded.