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IPM Home > Antkey > Introduction > Biology
and Life Cycle > Workers
How to Manage Pests
Key to Identifying Common Household Ants
Biology and life cycle—Workers
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Characteristics and duties of workers
- Sterile females
- Most numerous caste
- Some species such as carpenter ants and fire ants are
polymorphic, having several sizes of workers; the larger
workers, or major workers, have different job duties than
the smaller ones, or minor workers.
- Ants such as the Argentine ants only have one size of
worker and divide job duties by age; older workers gather
food and younger workers relay and store food, build tunnels,
defend the colony; and feed, groom, transport, and protect
larvae.
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