According to Dr. Pritt, for the most part, eating a bug isn't cause for worry. In general, your body will digest arthropods, which include arachnids like spiders, mites, and ticks, and insects such as gnats, flies, mosquitoes, fleas, and bedbugs, “just like any other food,” she says.
You're probably thinking that it takes a lot of ants to make a meal. True. But they pack a punch: 100 grams of red ant (one of thousands of ant species) provide some 14 grams of protein (more than eggs), nearly 48 grams of calcium, and a nice hit of iron, among other nutrients. All that in less than 100 calories.
Most ants are not a threat to humans. During an ant bite, the ant will grab your skin with its pinchers and release a chemical called formic acid into your skin. Some people are allergic to formic acid and could experience an allergic reaction from the ant bite. Some ants will sting and inject venom into your skin.
In rare cases, E. coli, Streptococcus, Shigella, Salmonella, and Staphylococcus have been found on ants. Learning about ant prevention tips and using professional services can help ensure your food is not contaminated by ants.
Ants are very clean animals. They have an oily saliva which they use to clean and oil their bodies by licking them. An ant's antennae are very important, as they help the ant communicate and find food sources. As such, they must also be kept very clean.
They are not poisonous. There have not been any reports about people dying or getting sick from eating ants. If you accidentally consume Sugar ants, your body will kill them as they pass through your digestive system.
The Ants Are Looking for a Source of Water
Sometimes, ants aren't interested in the food you have in the house, but a reliable source of water, especially during the hot season, when temperatures are extreme. Ants can use a leaking pipe or a faulty faucet to drink water, so make sure your plumbing is ok.
No, they are not considered to be dangerous. Little black ants do have a stinger, but it is too small to have any real effect. They are considered to be a nuisance pest that can invade your home and the food in your kitchen in large numbers.
There are only about 230 known parasitic species of ants among the 12,500 or so described ant species. Despite their rarity, they are common in a few subfamilies like the Myrmicinae and the Formicinae (Buschinger 2009), and common in temperate ants but rare in tropical ants (Hölldobler & Wilson 1990).
It might be difficult to believe, but the cockroach might be the “cleanest” species of insect.
For an insect, grooming is a serious business. If the incredibly sensitive hairs on their antennae get too dirty, they are unable to smell food, follow pheromone trails or communicate. So insects spend a significant proportion of their time just keeping themselves clean.
Just Keeping Clean
To feed their colonies, ants are constantly on the hunt for food and water. This makes your kitchen and bathrooms hot spots. Keeping your kitchen and bathrooms clean is a great preventive measure.
How Ants Transport Food-Borne Illnesses. In addition to transporting the bacteria that are already inside your home, ants can bring with them any number of other food-borne diseases like Shigella, clostridium, salmonella, staph, strep, E. coli, and various fungi.
Some people will experience more severe symptoms as the result of an ant sting including nausea, diarrhea, stomach cramps, dizziness, hoarseness, chest pain and difficulty breathing or swallowing.
Formication is the sensation of having insects crawling on or under the skin. The name comes from the Latin word “formica,” which means ant. Formication is a tactile hallucination, which means a person feels a physical sensation, but there is no physical cause.
It is advised not to squash ants, doing so will only release pheromones and trigger more ants to come to the location and cause more trouble to you and your family. Ants are known to pack a deadly bite that causes excruciating pain for a short time.
Ants do not breathe like we do. They take in oxygen through tiny holes all over the body called spiracles. They emit carbon dioxide through these same holes. The heart is a long tube that pumps colorless blood from the head throughout the body and then back up to the head again.
They will assume you are a threat, not a food, and even after you die they may ignore you, as ants are not usually attracted to large mammal cadavers compared to, say, corpse flies.
When it comes to germs, both of these pests carry plenty around. However, flies tend to have twice as many germs as cockroaches, which makes them an even bigger health hazard at dining establishments.
The Ladybug
Ladybugs, are one of the most harmless insects you can come across. They may be a nuisance if they come inside your home but they do no harm. They do play a role in eating smaller pests such as mites, aphids, and fruit flies.
Army ants have very few means of communication relative to humans. Visually, they can tell night from day and distinguish almost nothing more than that. They can't even form an image of the world around them, relying on their senses of smell and touch for detecting vibrations.
Summary: Ants are quite often infected by parasites. For example, tapeworms use ants as intermediate hosts for a part of their development phase before they complete their life cycle in their main host.