Destroyer ant
The destroyer ant is a tiny yellowish ant with a chocolate brown bottom. It got its name because it chews through things it cannot even eat, like cloth, rubber, plastic and electric cables. It has travelled all over the world on ships.
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Fun facts
It has been seen chewing up car tyres and plastic cups.
It sometimes builds its nest inside power sockets and computers.
One nest can have many queens.
Its workers walk slowly in narrow lines, one after another.
Nobody knows for sure where it first came from, maybe Asia or Africa.
Most asked questions about Destroyer ant
?Why is it called the destroyer ant?
Because it chews through cloth, rubber, plastic and cables, and can break electric things.
?What does the destroyer ant eat?
Almost anything: insects, seeds, nectar and human food like bread and peanut butter.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Trichomyrmex destructor
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- Asia, Africa, Australia and Oceania, North America, South America, Europe
- Also known as
- Destructive trailing ant, Singapore ant
Where the facts come from
- Trichomyrmex destructor (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by April Nobile. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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