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Photo Gallery - Tiny queens
A young thief ant queen climbs to a high point and prepares to launch
for her mating flight. - © Alex Wild
keep them out of their pantries. The best way to keep thief ants
out is to figure out how they’re getting in. Once you do that, block
their entranceway by plugging holes with some caulk or weather
stripping and tell those thief ants there’s a new sheriff in town.
Some people think Jesse James was like a modern-day Robin
Hood and that many of his crimes were to benefit others. I don’t
know what Jesse did with all of his loot, but many of the thief
ants’ crimes against other
insects surely do help us out
a lot. For example, when
they’re not stealing from
other ants, they love to eat
lawn pests like cutworms
and scarab beetle eggs, and
they provide effective control
against these lawn and golf
course pests.
Even though they’re
miniscule (almost three times
smaller than the smallest fire
ant), they’re pretty good at
bullying one of our biggest
ant bullies: the Red Imported
Fire Ant. Like the James
gang, they rely on their
Take a deeper look at the
cross-section of a thief ant
nest in an urban lawn.
cunning and strength in numbers to beat up and eat any upstart
fire ant colony making camp in their territory. In fact, fire ants
can’t establish nests in areas where thief ants roam.
Being tiny has its advantages. Because thief ants nest
underground and out of sight, they are one of the few ant species
who can weather the havoc wreaked by other nasty invaders like
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