Australia is currently known to have 10 subfamilies of ant, 101 genera and 1275 described species and subspecies. Ants species are varied in body size and some can be a lot bigger than others. Bull ants (or Bulldog ants) are ant species that can grow up to 20mm long.

Ants are social insects that live together in colonies. There are three castes of ants: Male, Female and Worker. Adult males are winged and their function is to mate with female. Some people are confused with winged ants and winged termite (termite alate). The photos below show the differences between the two. Further details of termite will be given under “termite” section of “pest information” on this website.

Winged Ant VS Winged Termite

Female ants have wings in the beginning of its adult life but the wings are dropped soon after mating. Not all ant species have only one reproductive, as most of them have many in order to maintain and increase the population in the colony. When there is only one reproductive in the colony, it will be called “queen”.

Workers are wingless females and they are the most numerous caste in the colony. They serve the colony by nest construction, foraging for food, feeding youngs and other castes, caring for eggs, defend and so on. In some species, there are also workers with well-developed heads and bigger in body size. These are called major workers, or “soldiers”.

Ants consume a wide range of food even including animals. Workers forage from the colony for food. Once the food source is located, they lay down “scent trails” so that other ants can follow to find the food. Most ants nest inside the soil and this is why they are normally found in the yards. However, they may enter to the building in order to find food source. In some cases, they nest within an empty void such as wall cavity or roof void of the building. Due to the large population of ants in the colony and theirhigh level of repruductivity, A good result of ant control can not be achieved by simply killing some part of their population. Some of the repellent chemical that people can purchased in some of the stores may be used to temporarily stop the ants from getting into the building from a specific area until they another way in. However, they may not be able to remove the nest if the next has been well established inside the empty void of the building. A thorough inspection followed by professional treatment by experienced pest control managers are required for ant control.