How each of these ants have travelled from their native homes is easy to explain, but impossible to reverse. Their tiny size made it easy to stow on board trading ships as long ago as the 18th Century. To this day, despite much tighter biocontrols in shipping and air-freight, they can still be overlooked and hitch a ride in containers with food, furniture and vegetation.

What is remarkable is how these versatile insects have adapted to rapidly establish themselves in new territories.

Most people are familiar with the phenomenon of flying ants – when fertile princesses and drones take to the wing in swarms to mate. Successfully mated females then set up new colonies. That demonstrates that many ants have a natural empire-building instinct. But several of the most invasive species have adapted to take the risk out of this reproductive strategy.

From humble beginnings living along the Paraná River in South America, Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) have now spread to every single continent in the world except Antarctica.

This global invasion was made possible partly by the ants' unusual camaraderie.

Researchers have found that invasive Argentine ant queens are actually tolerant of fertile princesses setting up as additional breeders within a colony. By breeding in an existing colony, princesses immediately have a willing army of workers to help to raise their broods, which results in the rapid expansion of the ants' population.

Argentine ants are not unique in this behaviour, it has been observed in a number of invasive ant species and is referred to as a polygene colony.

Another trick exhibited by invaders is to establish new colonies via budding. This is when a fertile female leaves on foot with a number of workers, rather than the riskier option of trying to survive the rigours of a nuptial flight to find a mate, then begin a colony from scratch as a lone parent.

Whereas ants are usually fiercely territorial, Argentine ants are curiously peace-loving towards their neighbours - provided they are family. Invasive Argentine ants live harmoniously in enormous super colonies that stretch up to 6,000 kilometres along the coastlines of the Mediterranean, California and western Japan.

Researchers even found that when members of these geographically separated colonies were introduced to each other, they showed remarkably low levels of aggression.

Scientists point to these results as evidence that humans have actually fostered this family connection by repeatedly introducing Argentine ants from around the world to one another through global trade.

Unfortunately, the isolated parts of the world where we benefit most from trade are also some of the most vulnerable to these unwitting biological exchanges. Many islands have no native ant populations so when invading ants arrive they establish unhindered and at alarming rates.

Yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes), thought to originate in West Africa and identifiable by their long golden legs and chaotic movements when disturbed, first invaded Christmas island in the Indian Ocean in the 1930s.

The island is known for its diverse fauna and flora including the distinctive red land crabs. But at the turn of the millennium researchers found the ants had invaded 28% of the island's rainforest. They recorded the highest known density of foraging ants ever, with 2000 ants per square metre within the ant supercolonies. The average spreading speed of the supercolonies was calculated at 3m per day, the equivalent of 1.1km per year.

More ants have been transported to the Pacific islands than any other biogeographic region, according to the IUCN's Invasive Species Specialist Group.

The little fire ant (Wasmannia auropunctata), also known as the electric ant for its painful and long-lasting sting, has been named as the greatest invasive threat in the region. Originally from mainland Central and South America, it has spread to six island groups with devastating consequences for endemic island species, including the famous Galapagos tortoises.

The ants kill tortoise hatchlings and target the eyes and clocae (or rear opening) of adults. On the islands of Hawaii, where there were no native ant species to stop their spread, residents are warned that little fire ants can blind pets with their stings.