Banded sugar ant colony can be long-lived, with queens living for seven years or more. The black carpenter ant ("Camponotus pennsylvanicus") is known to adopt larvae and pupae from banded sugar ant colonies. Workers that belong to different matrilines (female ancestry) appear significantly different from each other in size. Matrilines are also said to influence caste determination within the species. The banded sugar ant is considered a household pest and is occasionally seen in houses at night, capable of damaging furniture and fittings by chewing the wood; carbon disulphide is used to treat and remove a banded sugar ant nest. These ants do
Ant enter the nest of the host ant. A parasitic queen may enter the host nest before the first brood has hatched, establishing herself prior to development of a colony scent. Other species use pheromones to confuse the host ants or to trick them into carrying the parasitic queen into the nest. Some simply fight their way into the nest. A conflict between the sexes of a species is seen in some species of ants with these reproducers apparently competing to produce offspring that are as closely related to them as possible. The most extreme form involves the production of clonal