With coloring ranging from red to yellow and black markings on their abdomens, Pharaoh Ants are even smaller than Odorous House Ants, at roughly 1/16 inch long. While they are small, Pharaoh Ants are the most challenging household ant to manage, in large part due to the size of their colonies which can include up to one million workers and several thousand queens.

Pharaoh Ants seek warmer spaces near ready sources of food, and are often found in kitchens and restaurants. For their nests, Pharaohs seek well-hidden, out of the way locations, including gardens and lawns. Pharaoh Ants will eat virtually anything, but like many of their ant cousins, are partial to sweets.

Pharaoh Ants mature from egg to adult in roughly 45 days, but they live only a tiny fraction of the time of most other ants. Laying in the range of 400 eggs throughout their lives, female Pharaoh Ants can live up to 39 weeks, while worker Pharaohs live up to 10 weeks.

Halt Bugology Factoid
Pharaoh ants engage in a behavior pattern known as "satelliting," "fractionating," or, more commonly, "budding." Part of the colony migrates to a new location, which contrasts with the more common mechanism of colony reproduction where single females disperse and independently found colonies after a reproductive swarm. (Factoid Source: wikipedia)

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