Working in pest control has a tendency to change a person. We see and hear the strangest things, we venture into some of the worst infestations you can imagine, we are loaded with weird pest-related facts (things many of us never wanted to know). There’s pretty much no such thing as a boring pest—I mean, we’ve even posted fun facts about moths. If you had to pick a pest that’s a little bit uninteresting, it’d probably be ants, right? You’re familiar with them. They waltz into your house and steal your food, they crash your cookouts, they ruin your lawn… what else could there possibly be? Settle in, because ants are more fascinating than you’d think.

1. Ants stretch and yawn when they wake up. They keep regular schedules for eating, working, and sleeping. They’re just like us! (But not really.)
2. Ants are as old as dinosaurs—it’s estimated that ants date back 110-130 million years.
3. Pavement ants wage war with other colonies, other ants, and other insects.
4. Ants are believed to be the world’s smartest insect, with over 250,000 brain cells.
5. There are over 12,000 known species of ant worldwide.
6. Ants can survive underwater for up to two weeks. That’s some serious skill.
7. Ants communicate using pheromones, and every colony has its own scent, making it easy to spot intruders.
8. Ants can carry up to 50 times their own body weight. That’s 9,000 pounds to an average adult man.
9. The bullet ant has the most painful sting in the world. The name fits; their sting has been compared to the feeling of being hit by a bullet.
10. The largest ant nest ever found was over 3,700 miles wide. It contained 33 ant populations, millions of nests, and billions of workers.

Despite being pretty darn interesting, ants can ruin a picnic, damage your home, wreck your grass, and generally make it tough to have nice things. It can be challenging to eliminate an infestation once it’s established; that’s why the ant experts at Burgess Pest are ready to march whenever you need us. We have a variety of plans to Protect Your Pad from ants of all kinds, and whatever else is bugging you.