Ants will often seek the deepest rooms of their many-chambered nests in the hopes of escaping both cold and snow. These tiny insects require little or no food during the winter. If you see ants out on a day where you humans certainly need your coats—remember that the ants’ world is very small. It may be a lot warmer when you are an ant living less than an inch from the ground.

There are many species of ants and so it is hard to generalize about them, but all ants have a similar life cycle. When conditions are right, special reproductive ants- the winged males and the queens- take flight and mate in the air. The male soon dies, while the queen survives, removes her wings and then goes off to establish a new colony. Her job is now to lay thousands of eggs. These eggs are cared for by the worker ants and are the first stage in ant metamorphosis. Once the eggs hatch, the ant will then enter the larva stage followed by the pupa stage. Once the ants finally become adults, they can then work to help support the ant colony. Metamorphosis from egg to adult takes about 3 months. Most of this process takes place during the warm summer months and finishes as ants enter hibernation at the end of autumn.