Do ants EAT at night

Answer 1

They're are plenty of Army Ant species in North America. People rarely see them because they're mostly active during the night, hunting.

This is generally true for common house ants as well. They are active and forage at all times of the day. There haven't been any actual studies on this in particular but from what I've observed from common house ants, particularly the Lasius Flavus(I believe at least) hunt more during the night than during the day. I've studied them and I've come to the conclusion that fractions of the colony rest and hunt/forage in shifts. This is why you can go outside at anytime in the 24 hours of the day and see an ant scurrying around looking to sink its mandibles into something.

It makes more sense for them to have a larger fraction of the colony hunt at night as most ants don't like the sunlight. This is also why many try to start nesting under a stone or log or any object that blocks out the sun. I've also concluded that Lasius Flavus tend to be more ravenous at night and more aggressive when it comes to the hunt.

In a short study I threw an earthworm outside the perimeter of a nest during the daytime. Only a few attacked it, most passed it up for something else to do. I threw the earthworm onto the nesting area and due to the disturbance it made more ants came to attack it, during the attack it attempted to burrow into one of their tunnels; even more came out to defend against the Earthworm. Finally, during the nighttime I threw another earthworm outside the perimeter of their nest and every ant that happened upon it locked its jaws into its flesh. One or more of the attackers signaled there was live food where the worm was. In only a minute or two many, many ants came to devour the worm even though it was no threat to the nest or colony. They did this purely to kill the worm for feeding purposes and not defensive purposes.

Answer 2

Why wouldn't they? Ants aren't classified as noturnal animals nor day time animals. Ant's eat during they day and during the night!! Just like humans. To prove it go outside at night and put a piece of bread on the ground near some grass and watch the ants will have consumed all of it by the morning, or most of it!