Some time last winter these ants came inside in a barrow load of firewood.I was careful not to burn any as I am in the habit of examining each piece of wood before I load the fire, as often frogs, spiders and lizards hide inside the wood. I am sorry enough about destroying their homes without burning them alive as well.
They are not bitey ants and so I just ignored them. I would often see them cruising along the edge of the kitchen bench and I idly wondered what they were living on or if they were slowly starving to death in the back of the woodbox. There are certainly enough crumbs on my floor to keep them alive if ants eat crumbs. The dogs water bowl sits conveniently in a corner of the kitchen so there is water as well, but in the scheme of things I didn’t think too deeply about the ants other than being careful not to squash them.
Last week David was home and he discovered that the ants were living in my sugar bowl and now I am thinking about the ants a lot.
For the record ants are tricky to photograph, as soon as I take the lid off the sugar bowl they PANIC. And it is a mad scramble to RUN AWAY RUN AWAY
Poor homeless ants, forced to live in temporary accomodation on top of a microwave. I don’t know enough about these ants to know what to do. I assume they are in the sugar bowl because it is wooden and dark and rarely gets disturbed.
Do I just leave the ants alone, which is what I have been doing? Or do I go and let them go on a likely looking tree? I need an ant expert to say, Oh these are XX ants and they live on sugar sap from XX tree and then I can relocate them.
These sorts of things happen to me all the time internet and I am a bit concerned that my homeless ants are slowly starving to death.
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I just happen to be reading a good book on how ants live….there has to be a home base someplace else where the queen lives…are you sure they are not just raiding the sugar bowl and going back to their home? You are so wonderful to care about the tiny little ants….so easy to forget all we creatures are important equally…..
After I read your comment I realised these ants are going to die, they are Queenless as well as homeless. And thakyou for saying I am nice, a lot of people think I am quite nutty to care about ants but surely they have just as much right to live their lives as we do? Just because we take up more space does not mean we have the right to disregard other species who occupy less space? x
They’re not starving to death, they’re living on your sugar. Also a few crumbs here and there, water too. I don’t think ants have a specific diet, they’re scavengers as far as I know. I’d say round them up and take them outside, anywhere.
Any ant that dares to get into my home is despatched quick smart. I don’t care what type they are, I’m allergic to some ant bites and I have no wish to find out which type.
No River, these are not those pesky little black house ants these are BIG ants about 8mm long and they are huddling in my sugar bowl being very sad. poor sad ants.
You are lucky to have these creatures in your home. They bring much good luck into the house. When they die you can also eat them – they have a very nice sharp flavor which can be combined with taste of lime/lemon or soy.