Adelgid nymph

5978  My name is Luke. Location: Kelowna, BC.  At a home surrounded by fur and pine trees, the argentine ants have taken over the area and foraging at all these trees. They are coming down from the tee with this creature in their mouth. I think it’s an adelgid, but I’m not a pro, and I want to know what exactly has allowed these ants to thrive in such a different forest than their native origin.

This does look like a nymph of an adelgid – see http://tinyurl.com/lh7o7sn for an example. Argentine ants have been very successful in expanding their range as they tend to form ‘supercolonies’, each having multiple queens, and the colonies cooperate rather than compete with each other. Ed Saugstad, retired entomologist; Sinks Grove, WV.