20 quadrillion ants live on earth. In 2022 ant researchers (also known as entomologists) at Julius Maximilians University gathered averaging current data and did the math. Considering ants live everywhere except the north and south poles, this isn’t a hard number to believe. Considering how many ants get into houses, it’s a number that explains the unending arguments between man and ant.

The not surprising piece of data, ants love the tropics most. They prefer forests and arid places. They dislike humans. The more humans, the fewer ants. I find this suspect considering, again, the number of ants that want to live in my house.

Other Ant Facts for Future Entomologists.

• Ants are smart.
• Ants do math instinctively to build bridges, hills, homes, and maps leading to food sources.

• Ants waste no energy in their work. Efficiency is an ant thing.
• Ants are strong. How many ants would it take to lift a human? Good question. One ant can lift one milligram. One average human weighing one-hundred-and-fifty-pounds, is 68,038,855.5 milligrams. That’s how many ants will be called up for duty the day ants decide lifting a human is a good idea. That .5, half an ant, is an awkward thought. But there it is in cold hard math.
• Ant cooperation is hive mind, yielding immediate change to group goals at any intervention.

• Ants are survivors. I know this because of the ants surrounding my house kicking the front door wanting in.

Ants are also an incredible entomology STEM project for junior researchers. Since there’s 20 quadrillion ants in the world, there are plenty of ants to go around.