Ants vs Termites: What Is the Difference?

Termites are often called white ants, and both live in big colonies with a queen. Yet termites are not ants at all. They are not even closely related. Here is how to tell them apart.

Termites in Uganda: no narrow waist and straight antennae.

Not family

Ants belong to the Hymenoptera, together with bees and wasps. Termites belong to the Blattodea, together with cockroaches. Termites are actually a kind of social cockroach. Ants and termites both developed colony life with queens and workers, but completely independently of each other.

How to tell them apart

• Waist: ants have a narrow waist between the thorax and the gaster. Termites have a thick body without a clear waist.

• Antennae: ant antennae are elbowed, with a sharp bend. Termite antennae are straight and look like a string of beads.

• Wings: in winged ants the front wings are clearly longer than the back wings. Winged termites have four wings of about the same size, which they drop after the flight.

• Colour: most termite workers are pale and soft, which is where the name white ants comes from.

Colonies work differently

• In a termite colony the king stays with the queen for life. In an ant colony the males die soon after mating.

• Termite workers can be male or female. Ant workers are always female.

• Young termites look like small adults and grow step by step. Ants go through egg, larva and pupa before they become adults.

• Many termites eat wood and other plant material. Most ants eat insects and sugars.

Enemies

Ants and termites often meet, and usually not as friends. Many ants hunt termites, such as the African stink ant and the driver ants that sometimes raid whole termite mounds. In Uganda, ants and termites even share one name in Luganda: enswa. Read more in White Ants Are Not Ants.

Want to watch real ants at work, no termites involved? Our ant starter kit has everything you need to start.

Photo: © Esthetic Ants