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Ant scouts will use something called chemosense to detect a food source. Ants can have up to 5 times the odor sensing ability as humans. This allows them to detect that tiny morsel of food which dropped from your plate and rolled under the couch. They use tiny receptors in the form of tiny bristles located on their body to look for food.
Once the scout detects the food source it will head back to the nest, leaving a chemical trail for others to follow. Other ants will show up quickly and get to work on bringing the food back to the nest.
This all depends on the species of ant. Carpenter ants prefer fats like those found in meat but they will try to eat almost anything. So called “sugar ants” eat… you guessed… anything containing sugar. This doesn’t have to be candy, donuts or a spilled sugar drink, it can also be substances like milk, as milk contains its own kind of sugar called lactose.
Bigheaded ants consume other living insects whether they are dead or alive. So, if you have an insect problem, you will most likely end up with a bigheaded ant problem as well.
There are special baits used for each type of ant. The worker ants will grab this bait and bring it back to the nest. Their job is to be selfless and work in-service of the colony. In the case of liquid baits, ants will store the bait in their stomach. They then head back to the colony and feed the other ants mouth-to-mouth. In due time, all of the ants which have ingested the bait will die.
Sometimes, the bait will kill an ant before it makes it to the nest. This is no big deal as the other ants will ignore it and continue working.
Bigheaded ants will pick up pieces of bait and carry it using their legs. They then deposit it at the nest where it will be consumed, sometimes right away and sometime later on.
There are two reasons why the ants carrying the bait don’t die right away. The first being that they carry it back and not ingest it. The other is that the poison hasn’t had enough time to kill them, which of course, is by design.
