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Meet the Winter Ant
Remember in Alice in Wonderland when Alice followed the white
rabbit down its bunny hole? The hole was ordinary enough at
first, but once Alice climbed in, she fell down and down until she
came to a completely different world. Holes like that rabbit’s
pepper the ground across the United States. If we were as small
as ants, we could tumble repeatedly down into other worlds.
Winter ants (Prenolepis imparis) are the white rabbits of ants.
Plunging down their holes gives us a peek into their truly
extraordinary lives.
Unless you follow a winter ant home, its nest’s entrance can be
hard to find. About the size of a buttonhole, winter ant nests
aren’t a lot to look at on the outside. Inside, deep mazes of
tunnels connect chambers all the way to the bottom. They can
extend almost 12 feet deep in the soil. That would be the human
equivalent of a class of second graders digging a hole more than
1.14 miles down, deep enough that 150 school buses could be
stacked end-on-end before reaching the surface.
Urban Life
Where it lives: Winter ants nest deep in the
soil near tree bases or in open ground, like
lawns.
What it eats: While winter ants won’t pass up
the opportunity for a sugary snack, these
ladies prefer protein-packed food, noshing on
other insects unlucky enough to endure
winter’s chill.
NYC notes: Even though it gets very cold in
New York, Prenolepis imparis still hangs out in
the fall and spring. On a cold fall day, a day
that seems too cold for ants, you can
sometimes find these lovelies on park
benches, their bellies golden with sugar, as
they pause to catch a chance sun ray.
Discoveries await.
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