Ants and termites are unwanted visitors that you would rather stay away from your home. Mostly, they can give damage to your property and to you as well. Knowing the difference between ants and termites is essential because you should know if the condition is escalated enough for you to call pest control. Termites can be pretty pesky because they will destroy your things and ants’ bites are known to be itchy.
These pests are usually mistaken for each other but you should know the differences between them.
Termite control and ant prevention is needed to ensure that you have a quiet home life without them disturbing your peace. So before they live up to their notorious reputation of causing damage to your home, consider these differences between ants and termites:
Features
Termites and ants’ appearance differ in many different ways. Ants are usually dark colored while Termites have a light color. Termites are usually white or cream colored and they can sometimes look translucent.
They have a straight antenna whereas ants have elbowed antenna. Their waists, also called a pedicel (which is found between the thorax and abdomen), also differs. Ants’ waists are present while Termites’ are absent. The abdomen of ants is pointed at end and termites’ abdomens are blunt at end.
The shape of their bodies are different from each other. Termites have a thicker body, looking like it is composed of two sections which are their head and a thorax. The ant looks like it is made of three sections: a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. It is also notable that the neck and waist of the ant are thinner.
Diet
Ants are known as scavengers with the different species foraging for food. There are ants that live within damp or decaying wood but they do not actually eat wood.
On the other hand, termites are attracted to plant tissues, they feed off wood and grasses, and there are some species that deals extensive damage to buildings and trees because of their feeding and nesting habits.
Size
Both species can fly because of their wings and they will differ in their size. Both have two sets of wings but the termite’s back wings can be easily noticed beneath the front ones. Ant’s wings cannot be seen because their wings are shorter than that of the termites.
They have the same size of wings but termite’s wings are twice as long as their body while ant’s back wings are shorter and thus it cannot be seen easily.
Key Takeaway
Although they look similar to each other, ants and termites are different in many different ways. Make sure that you protect your house from these unwanted pests by asking for the help of a reliable pest company or do DIY home remedies in order to prevent them from dealing damage to your home.
