HOUSE ANTS 
By E. A. Back, principal entomologist, Division of Insects Affecting Man and 
Animals, Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine 
Several species of ants invade houses, getting into food supplies 
and otherwise annoying the occupants. They all form colonies or 
nests, in which remain.the queen ants, which lay the eggs, and the 
young ants, which have to be fed by the worker ants. ‘The workers 
are the ants that are found attacking foods and crawling about the 
house. They collect food and carry it back to the nest, where they 
feed it to the queens and the young. Killing some of these workers 
merely weakens the colony but does not affect the queens or the 
development of the young unless so many workers are killed that the 
colony’s food supply is seriously reduced. In fighting ants, therefore, 
the secret of success is to locate and destroy the nests, including the 
queens and the young, for when this is done the other forms usually 
perish. 
Ants With Wings 
Every now and then, particularly late in the winter, in the spring, 
and early in the summer, ant colonies produce large numbers of winged 
FIGURE 1.—The little black ant: A, Male; B, pupa; C, female; D, female with wings; EZ, worker; F, larva; 
G, eggs; H, group of workers in line of march. A to G much enlarged, H about 3 times natural size. 
forms (fig. 1, A, D). These are the young queens and the males. 
They swarm from the old nest, usually in considerable numbers, and 
attract attention by their abundance. Most of them die without 
2 Issued October 1937 
Siightly revised, April 1938 
