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Photo Gallery - Sugar sugar sugar
Crazy ants will tend aphids and scale insects for their sweet secretions. -
© Alex Wild
They’ll nest in any nook or cranny they can find, squeezing into
potting soil or snuggling up to trees in medians. They eat pretty
much anything, too. From honeydew to small insects to our trash,
crazy ants aren’t picky. Three species are common in the United
States: Nylanderia flavipes (the yellow-footed ant), Nylanderia
terricola, and the ant equivalent of Aunt Annie Kate (the craziest):
Nylanderia fulva (the Raspberry crazy ant).
Crazy ants get their common name from the way they run around
like a house afire while they’re foraging. While most ants seem to
move about in orderly lines or careful steps, crazy ants have a
wiggle-waggle way of running as they go to and from food.
Between their sparse fur coats and their zany walk, you shouldn’t
have a hard time telling these nutty ants from the others running
around your city park.
Their easygoing ways and catholic diets make crazy ants
excellent party crashers. Because they can
nest anywhere and eat anything, crazy ants
have no problem moving into new
environments. When animals like crazy
ants aren’t fussy about what they need,
they can expand their empires into new
locations more easily than their choosier
chums. Unfortunately, this means these
easy-to-please insects make good invasive
pests.
Yellow-footed ants originally
come from Asia but have
made themselves right at
home across the
Midwestern and Eastern
United States, including
New York City.
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