Ant Hill Wood

Ants, as most people know if they've ever had any direct contact with them, will bite and sting in defence; but these weapons are also used to attack and kill other insects and sometimes people.

So what is the difference between an ant biting you or an ant stinging you? For a start, a bite is never fatal in humans unless infection gets into the open wound, whereas a sting can cause an allergic reaction and make a person go into anaphylactic shock, leading to respiratory and heart failure in severe cases.

When most ants bite, depending on the jaw size of the species, it can be anything from a small nip of the skin to a deep incision which draws blood. Some ants then spray formic acid into the open wound, which makes the bite area burn like fire; but if you can avoid getting bitten in the first place, then a spray of acid is only dangerous if it gets into your eyes or you have your mouth open. For this reason I would advise that you never put an ant (living or dead) into your mouth, as your tongue may swell up which could then choke you. I have read of a few who have done this, but it is a practise that is stupid and irresponsible; and even though chocolate covered ants are sold, you wouldn't put a wasp or bee in your mouth, so leave ants where they belong and DO NOT EAT THEM!

The sting of an ant is an entirely different thing to her bite, as more people have died or become extremely ill from being stung by some ant species. A good example is the Australian "Jack Jumper" belonging to the Myrmecia genus. Stings contain a venom which is injected into the victims skin. This then gets into the bloodstream, and depending on the toxicity of the poison, will cause either a burning sensation and localized redness of the skin, or an extremely painful reaction which can cause paralysis of the infected area. Some ant stings may cause a person to lose control of a finger, hand or even their arm for several hours, until the venom wears off or they receive medical treatment.

It is fair to say that ants rarely attack anything larger than their normal prey, unless provoked by the disturbance of their nest for instance. Bites and stings are used to overcome other insects when hunting for food, or during times of battle against enemies which include other ants. Think of a sting as a hypodermic needle that delivers liquid from a syringe. The sting of an ant is nothing more than a hollow needle from which the venom in the poison sac is pumped into the victim. While the bite or sting from just one ant is hardly noticeable, imagine being bitten or stung by hundreds or even thousands of very angry ants. You will certainly not want to hang around for too long, despite the fact that you may be 100,000 times their size; and pray that you are never in a position where you cannot move out of the path of an African (Dorylus species) Driver ant raid, as you'll end up on the menu for their hungry larvae.

Don't have nightmares about this though, as more people die from natural causes every day than have died from ant bites/stings in the last century. In fact, you're more likely to die from influenza or other diseases than from insects, spiders, snakes etc.

Just to put the records straight, all worker ants; be they major, minor or soldier castes, and this includes other social insects such as wasps, bees or termites, are all under-developed infertile females.
So, to refer to a worker ant or a soldier as " He " is technically wrong, as all worker and soldier castes are, in reality, daughters of the queen or queens; depending on whether the colony is monogynous (having only 1 queen per nest/colony) or polygynous (having many queens per nest/colony).

Worker ants do have ovaries which are capable of producing eggs; but as they are not as large as a fully functional queens, they only lay about 3 to 7 eggs per year, certainly not more than this; but as a nest may contain thousands of workers, it is possible for many 100's of trophic eggs to appear in a nest in very early spring.
These eggs are always infertile, and are usually eaten; but if by a quirk of fate they do hatch into larvae, then they will only produce male ants, as males always develop from unfertilized eggs.

Male ants never do any work of any kind, and cannot even feed themselves, as their mouth parts are incapable of chewing food.
So adult males have to be fed like larvae by their own sister workers.
As male ants only live for one thing, mating with the new queens; which after having done the act of mating, they often die of exhaustion. Males who do make it home are driven away or killed by the very same sisters who so lovingly fed and cared for them, as they have fulfilled their purpose in life; and as males don't work, they would only be a liability to the colony afterward.

Queen ants are of course, always female; and as they are the main egg laying mothers of any ant nest, a colony cannot exist without one.
To some extent, which is still somewhat of a scientific mystery, the queen can determine which of her eggs will produce workers, new queens or males.
Males eggs are produced when the queen withholds sperm, and it is believed that queen eggs are laid earlier than worker eggs; and at lower nest temperatures, although eggs which produce male ants are often the very first to be laid.

 So please remember, when you see a busy worker ant, bee or wasp going about their business, always say "look at her" or "there she goes", as it is always the females that do all the hard work in ant society; or in any other social insect colony for that matter, which includes bees, hornets, termites or wasps.