08-08-2015, 12:49 AM
According to the Hawaii Ant Lab they don't fly !
"Someone told me that the new queens have wings and they can fly to new sites after mating. How far can they fly?
This is a really interesting question. Most ant species produce new queens and males from time to time, usually when things are going well for the colony. When weather conditions are just right, the queens and the males take to the skies in a "nuptial flight". The queens mate and then look for a good place to land and start a new colony. The males, having done their job, have nowhere to go and eventually die. Once she has landed, the queen will break off her wings and start to lay eggs and a new colony becomes established.
Little Fire Ants do not follow these rules. Scientists think they actually mate in the nest and then stay in the nest along with other queens in an extended family. For people trying to control them, this is both good and bad news. It means that even if a treatment kills some of the queens, often there will be enough queens left over to keep the colony going. On the other hand, it also means that the ants can not spread very far all by themselves. They actually need us to move them to a new location. So just because there are some LFA colonies in an area, does not mean the entire area is doomed. If we can prevent them from moving to new places, the spread will not be that quick."
"Someone told me that the new queens have wings and they can fly to new sites after mating. How far can they fly?
This is a really interesting question. Most ant species produce new queens and males from time to time, usually when things are going well for the colony. When weather conditions are just right, the queens and the males take to the skies in a "nuptial flight". The queens mate and then look for a good place to land and start a new colony. The males, having done their job, have nowhere to go and eventually die. Once she has landed, the queen will break off her wings and start to lay eggs and a new colony becomes established.
Little Fire Ants do not follow these rules. Scientists think they actually mate in the nest and then stay in the nest along with other queens in an extended family. For people trying to control them, this is both good and bad news. It means that even if a treatment kills some of the queens, often there will be enough queens left over to keep the colony going. On the other hand, it also means that the ants can not spread very far all by themselves. They actually need us to move them to a new location. So just because there are some LFA colonies in an area, does not mean the entire area is doomed. If we can prevent them from moving to new places, the spread will not be that quick."