Ants are familiar to every continent except Antarctica.

Black ants will eat practically anything, though they do have a sweet tooth and prefer items with some sugar. They are omnivores.

Male ants (Drones) and virgin queens (Gynes) mate in flight or ‘on the wing’, usually between June and September on Turtle Island. Most of these flying ants will be food for birds and such. But the few queens who survive the mating will discard their wings and begin to nest.

The queen will begin to lay her eggs as soon as she completes the construction of her nesting chamber. She will not eat until her hatched workers can feed her, so her first brood ants are smaller than her later offspring will be. There are four developmental stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Her first eggs will hatch after 8–10 weeks. The larvae will be fed by the queen initially and then the workers. These larvae will molt three times or until big enough to spin its own cocoon. A ready worker will then emerge. It will take several years before the queen lays eggs that will become queens and males.

So many things eat ants that it would be difficult to compile a full list. Among the most common predators are birds, spiders, beetles, caterpillars, flies, wasps, snails, snakes, fish, lizards, frogs, bears, coyotes, rabbits, chipmunks, mice, foxes, and other ants.