The ants you see foraging in your garden or kitchen are workers. Workers that find food communicate with other workers by depositing a chemical message on the substrate as they crawl back to the nest. Images of a winged ant and a winged termite. In the spring, ants develop wings and fly to new locations and invade homes to forage for food or to establish a new nest. Termites also develop wings and swarm during the spring and look similar to flying ants.
Ants are thin-waisted and have elbowed antennae.
Termites have thicker waists and have antennae that resemble strings of tiny beads. You may need a magnifying glass to examine antennal features. As a group, ants have a wide food range, feeding on sweet foods, greasy materials, starchy substances, wood, and all kinds of plant and animal materials. Part of the reason that ants become a nuisance in our homes is that they often like the same kinds of food that we do. There are two categories of ants that will be encountered with an ant problem.