How long ants can live varies greatly by caste within the colony, species, and environmental conditions, with queens living the longest, workers living months to a few years, and males living only weeks. Queen ants, which are responsible for laying thousands of eggs and founding colonies, live the longest, with odorous house ant queens living 3 to 7 years, carpenter ant queens living up to 10 to 25 years in some species, and leafcutter ant queens living up to 20 years in protected lab conditions, making them among the longest-lived insects. Worker ants, which are sterile females that forage, care for larvae, and defend the nest, live much shorter, with odorous house ant workers living a few months to a year, carpenter ant workers living several months to a year, and fire ant workers living about 5 to 6 months. Male ants, whose sole purpose is mating with queens during nuptial flights, live the shortest, typically only a few weeks and die shortly after mating. In heated homes with abundant food, ants may live longer than outdoors where predation and weather shorten lives. Colony longevity can be many years because queens continuously produce new workers to replace those that die. For pest control, understanding lifespan helps because killing only workers does not eliminate the colony, as the queen continues laying eggs, so slow-acting gel baits containing fipronil or borax that workers carry back to kill the queen are needed for permanent control, otherwise ants can persist in your house for the life of the queen, 3 to 7 years or more.
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