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
The Electric Ant The Electric Ant "The Electric Ant" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published in "Fantasy and Science Fiction" magazine in October 1969. Garson Poole wakes up after a flying-car-crash to find that he is missing a hand. He then finds out that he is an 'electric ant' an "organic" robot. He further finds out that what he believes is his subjective reality is being fed to him from a micro-punched tape in his chest cavity. He experiments on this tape by adding new holes, which adds things to his reality. Convinced