Field Ants – Formica spp.Common Name: Field Ants.
Latin Name: Formica spp.
Appearance:
Field ants commonly have a longer body, ranging from three to nine millimeters. Field ants can be any hue, including pale yellowish, reddish brown, black, or a mix of these.
Large (3/8-inch) ants are frequently mistaken for carpenter ants. There is a wide range of hues, including black, brown, tan, reddish, red, and black.
Thorax appears to be rough. Their bodies are segmented, and the top sides of their bodies have an irregularly rounded shape.
Based on their physical characteristics, field ants are sometimes mistaken for carpenter ants, and the piles of soil and other materials they produce when building their nests might be mistaken for fire ant activity.
Host plant:
The honeydew formed by aphids and other plant-sucking insects is the principal food source for field ants. However, because field ants are not fussy, the pests eat sweet foods, soft-bodied insects, seed husks, and dead insects.
Damages caused by Field Ant:
The majority of the times, field ants create mounds, the aboveground parts of their colonies, or nests, which is when they cause issues. Stacks can be over two feet tall and three to four feet broad. Mounds are ugly, can hinder turf development, and can provide a risk while mowing lawns. Additionally, certain types of field ants can poison the roots of herbaceous and woody plants that shade their mounds by introducing formic acid. Finally, field ants may sting people and animals with painful, pinch-like bites if disturbed.
Life history and Habits:
The peak of mating flights occurs in the South in late June or early July; higher altitudes and latitudes have a little later peak. Many or maybe all species in the rufa, microgyna, exsecta, and sanguinea groups have dependent colony foundation, which is impacted by mated queens joining the queen numbers in a colony of her species or usurping the resident queen of a fusca, neogagates, or pallidefulva group species. In these host groups, individual queens almost invariably start new colonies, but some may create smaller groups or re-enter a territory of their species (likely a related settlement).
