The more i think about it, the more sure i am that i have never seen ants about during the night. And I don’t think it’s a visibility thing, either. I’m talking about on sidewalks under streetlights and such. At work, I see ants around if i take a lunchbreak at five, but not at nine.
what gives? eatable things fall during the night too, whether they be soda, sandwich, or dead squirrel. have i simply not noticed any, or are they asleep (the i-only-have-ganglia version of sleep)? are there nocturnal ants?
Most ants I’ve come across are primarily active during the daylight hours. Some bugs prefer cool, dark places (pillbugs, millipedes), some prefer warmth (yellowjacket nests on a structure are almost always on the part where the sun hits, in my experience).
Ants prefer the warmth. It stirs them up and gets them going (many ant nests are in sunny areas).
I say all this from my own experience as a pest control technician. I’ll try to find some websites that explain ant activity.
I tried a few searches, but didn’t get very far. From what I was able to gather, though, ants are found mostly in warm climates (explains why you never hear about Siberian fire ants).
Also, they seem to be sensitive to climate changes, as one site described their nests, saying they will move to the cooler lower chambers if it’s too hot and to the higher, warmer chambers if it’s too cold.
It just occurred to me that it’s true of other social insects (termites, bees, wasps) that they favor warmth in building nests and in their activities. As social insects, they have a stake in the protection of the queen and the protection and development of eggs, which probably require a definite temperature range. Thus it may be that most or all social insects return to the nest during the relative cool of night in order to provide assistance in monitoring the eggs.
Sorry, this is mostly speculation, educated guessing and experiential observations. Hopefully, someone else will do a search and find what I missed.
There are plenty of species of nocturnal ants, as well as lots of others that forage both by day and by night. It may be true that in the temperate zone ants will be more active when it’s warm and so be seen more in the daytime. However, in desert areas, where the main problem may be overheating, more species may be active at night.
I have been ATTACKED by fre ants while walking in my yard at night. Step on or close to the nest and they are all over you. It also seems like they climb halfway up you leg before they start biting, so by they time you notice its to late.
I think the deal is, ants don’t generally go out at night because they use the sun to navigate. Probably a million years ago ants used to go and rummage around at night, but they all got lost, couldn’t get home, and died. Hungry, frightened, and alone. So now ants don’t go out at night.
Although, Australian tree (or “green”) ants do go out at night, so probably I’m wrong. But then these ants use scent trails. Huh.