Ant Facts: 35 Fantastic Facts for Kids (& 2 Free PDFs)
Want your child or students to marvel at the wonder of tiny ants? These 35 facts about ants for kids make these tiny insects even more fascinating.
Have you stumbled across our list of favorite ant books for children? These ant facts are the perfect companion to keep kids learning.
General Ant Facts
Ants are insects.
Ants live in large colonies with other ants.
The ant life cycle has four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
An ant larva is a baby ant. It looks like a tiny white worm.
An ant pupa is in a cocoon. The pupa has legs and looks more like an adult ant. Inside the cocoon, it changes from white to a darker color.
The ant is one of the strongest creatures on earth for its size.
Ants can’t hear, and some can’t even see.
Instead of listening, ants use their legs to feel for vibrations in the ground.
Ants send messages to other ants through chemicals called pheromones.
Ants breathe through tiny holes on the sides of their bodies.
When ants travel, they use smell to keep track of their location.
Like bees, ants have three jobs. The queen lays eggs. The female worker ants care for the colony. The male ants mate with the queen.
Anthill Facts
Anthills are built with dirt ants dug from the tunnels of their nest.
The size and number of anthills a colony builds depends on the ant species and habitat.
Anthills absorb heat from the sun to warm the ants’ nest underground.
Anthills protect the entrance to the ant nest.
The tallest anthill ever discovered was over 9 feet tall.
Queen Ant Facts
Queen ants and male ants have wings and fly when it is time to mate.
After mating, a queen ant will chew or pull off her wings.
A queen ant can lay millions of eggs in a lifetime.
Unlike bees, ants almost never replace their queen if she dies. When the queen dies, the colony will eventually die too.
Some species of ants have more than one queen.
One species of ants has a queen ant that can live for 30 years.
Interesting Ant Facts
Fire ants will cling together and float if the ant colony is flooded.
Fire ants will invade other ant colonies and even bee hives.
When an ant dies, other ants will investigate. Then they carry the dead ant back to the nest.
A mega ant colony in Argentina stretches over 3,500 miles.
Ants move more dirt than earthworms!
Leafcutter ants are farmers. They cut leaves to use as fertilizer to grow a fungus that they eat.
One species of ants, called crazy ants, moves around in zigzags instead of lines.
An ant can store food in its “social stomach” to feed other ants.
Aardvarks and anteaters are well-known ant predators. These animals live in different parts of the world, but both use their long snouts and tongues to catch ants in ant nests.
Carpenter ants build their nests inside trees.
There is a tropical fungus that invades and controls an ant’s body. This is known as the zombie fungus!
Need more bug facts? Check out our lists for bees, dragonflies, and spiders.
I sincerely hope that some of the ant facts on this list spark incredible conversations with your kids. Learning about insects helps everyone feel a little more connected to nature. Remember to explore our list of favorite children’s books about ants too.