Pharaoh Ant

• GeneralIts nests hold several queens and split when sprayed, which makes the infestation worse.
• That is why control relies solely on slow-acting baits that the workers carry back to the queens.
• In hospitals it has been documented in surgical equipment, drips and patients' wounds, which makes it a health problem and not merely a domestic one.
• It makes no nuptial flights: it mates inside the nest and spreads by budding, when a queen leaves with a few workers and brood to found a new nest. That is why a badly applied treatment scatters it instead of eliminating it.
• It does not recognise its own nestmates, so neighbouring colonies do not fight and in effect form a supercolony.
• It is a serious problem in hospitals: it seeks warmth and damp, gets under soiled dressings and carries bacteria from drains and rubbish into clean areas.
• An established infestation can reach several million workers and hundreds of queens.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat and environment

Buildings, hospitals, bakeries and kitchens

Sexual maturity

The workers complete development from egg to adult in about 36 days and the winged reproductives in about 44

Gestation / incubation

From egg to adult, between 25 and 54 days

Litter / clutch size

From 10 to 12 eggs per reproductive bout and up to about 400 over the queen's lifetime; other sources cite up to 35 eggs a day

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomorium_pharaonis; IUCN GISD (Alvares et al. 1993); Texas Invasive Species Institute; IUCN GISD, ficha Monomorium pharaonis; AntWiki; AntWiki, Monomorium pharaonis (Bolton 1987); Texas Invasive Species Institute, ficha Monomorium pharaonis; IUCN GISD; fichas de manejo de hormiga faraon

Best time: Active all year in heated interiors; it does not hibernate and does not tolerate cold, so in a temperate climate it lives exclusively inside buildings