Habitat

They are nocturnal in nature and prefer a mesic habitat, where there is moderate or well-balanced supply of moisture. They also thrive in urban areas and are considered as pest. They are more active during the warmer seasons like the summer time. Inside the house, they are most commonly seen in:

• Kitchen counters and sinks where left-over food is usually found
• Cupboards with sweet food stocks
• Food pantries
• Walls & sidings

Outside the house, since they are mostly found in or around:

• Outdoor plant boxes
• Areas with loose soil
• Some forests & woodlands
• Grass lands & heaths

Sugar ants are one of the most widely distributed ants in Australia and is now found widespread throughout the USA.

Behavior

Sugar ants are mostly active at night, they thrive in moist environments and are strongly attracted to sweet substances, like nectar from plants, honeydew from aphids, maple syrup from your kitchen, and other nutrients high in carbohydrates. Hence their name; sugar ants. They also thrive in urban areas and are considered a pest.
These ants have multiple techniques to make other ants follow them to a food source, they can carry another worker going there or they can leave their pheromone trail on the way to the source. During food foraging or any other activity, when provoked, the ant will lift its abdomen and using its large mandibles, fends off an attacker or sprays formic acid to deter them.
Although they primarily eat sweets, sugar ants are omnivores and will also eat both plants and animals. They mostly feed on sweet substances. They have a beneficial, mutual relationship with aphids, plant-eating insects that secret sweet honeydew like substances from their anus, which they tend. As the ants protect aphids from attackers, aphids in turn provide them nutrition.

Reproduction

Sugar ants, like all other ants, begin their life cycle as eggs. They develop through metamorphosis and pass through a larval and then pupal stage before emerging as full-sized adult ants.

While most sugar ant colonies have been found to only have 1 queen, there have been cases where there were multiple queens. In colonies with multiple queens, free-mixing of offspring is observed. But despite this homogenous way of living, there have been observations where different family lineages are strongly related with the colonies’ caste system – making it seem that is indeed genetically determined. If there is only 1 queen, she will mate with only 1 male. These queens live for up to seven years or even longer.

Danger?

Sugar ants are harmless but considered a pest in the household. They can be seen at night occasionally and are capable of damaging house furniture and fittings. They chew on some wooden materials in the house.

Sugar ants are incapable of stinging humans. They are capable of biting and spray formic acid. The bigger ones like the soldier sugar ants can inflict minor pain when they bite, using their powerful jaws and by spraying the formic acid which can be corrosive to human skin. These bites can leave small red bumps and can cause further skin irritation, which if vigorously scratched and get exposed to bacteria, can lead to infection.

Signs of a Sugar Ant Infestation

If you suspect a sugar ant infestation, check your kitchen counter, pantry, container lids and cupboards. These ants are attracted to spills and crumbs, especially of sweet foods. The first sign would be seeing the worker ants, often at dusk, moving along trails searching for food. From the home, they return to their nests which usually look like dirt hills surrounded by small holes for entrances. These nests can be difficult to locate due to the sugar ants nocturnal behaviors.

Controlling Sugar Ants

Look for the path where ants are entering your house. You need to be able to pinpoint where the sugar ants are coming from. Most common points of entry are windows, doors, cracks, holes in the walls and floors. These ants also tend to nest in foliage or under trees, so clearing away any branches of trees or plants touching your house will help prevent them. Trim vines and bushes as these can become their bridge or highway in entering your house.

There are a few ways on how you can control them indoors, and the most common way for controlling sugar ants is luring them to traps and using sugar-based baits.

Total Control – Ant Kit

If you are looking for a single solution to permanently get rid of Sugar Ants indoors and out, then our Ant Kit is the way to go. It is set up to provide all the products and bait stations you need to treat any type of ant in the USA. You can read more about Ant Kits here, or if you want to purchase a kit now, simply click the button below:

DIY: Boric Acid and Honey. You can mix equal parts of honey and boric acid in a container. Stir until you get a paste-like consistency. Place the paste on a board, card board or any thick paper board. Place the board in the points of entry of the ants. Replace the traps every couple of days until you see no more sugar ants on the board.

Recommended Product: Duda Energy borp1 Fine Powder Boric Acid

Borax and Sugar. Mix 1 ½ tablespoons of Borax with 1 ½ cups of water and 0.5 cup of sugar. Dip cotton balls or cotton pads in the mixture until soaked. Put them on jar lids and place them on the pathways the ants are using from the entry point to poison them as soon as they come in contact with the solution.

Recommended Product: Mule Team All Natural Borax Detergent

You can also try using some other common substances in your kitchen to help drive them away:

White Vinegar. You can spray them with this solution. Add equal parts of vinegar and water and put it into a spray bottle. Spray the solution directly on the ants and places where they usually enter and forage for food as well as the trails they make. This will kill the ants and the pheromone traces as well, which will discourage them from returning.

Lemon Juice. Like vinegar, you can add 4 tablespoons of lemon juice to an 8-oz spray bottle. Spray the solution the same way as you would using the vinegar solution above.

Outdoor Control

Commercial Ant Baits and Sprays. After you have identified the entry points of the sugar ants, place ant baits near them. This will attract them soon and they will carry these to their nest which will kill the rest of their colony.

The sugar in the ant baits will lure them in. They end up eating the sugar and getting trapped at the same time or end up eating the chemicals in the bait as well. They may also bring the substance back to their nests and feed it to the rest of the colony.

Recommended Product: T T300B Liquid Ant Bait 

Ant spray is also a popular method to get rid of sugar ants. The immediate effect is brought about by the droplet spraying of the insecticide. The main advantage is toxicity, so make sure to check that no animals and humans are near your target area for a few hours.

Recommended Product: Terro 16 oz. Aerosol Spray.

Best Products to Get Rid of Sugar Ants

Inside the House:

Luring sugar ants with ant baits is the most common and effective ways of controlling them. These baits must be put in places where you see ants often, such as kitchen spaces, trash cans, counters, table tops, cupboards and the likes.

Recommended Bait Types:

Sugar Based Bait:

Terro Liquid Ant Baits

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Sugar Based Bait:

Harris Ant Killer Bait

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Best Products for Outside the House:

Abamectin 0.15 EC

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Taurus SC

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Preventing Infestations

• Seal windows and doors. Make sure windows and doors are tightly sealed as sugar ants can enter the home through these openings. Also, seal holes and cracks on the walls and floors. This will help prevent infestation or re-infestation, especially after you have just gotten rid of them.
• Clean up every after meal. Keep your table tops, floors, kitchen counters clear of debris to prevent attracting sugar ants. Vacuum sweep and wipe food crumbs from these areas.
• Wash the dishes after a meal. Keep the kitchen sink and surrounding areas clean and dry. Dirty dishes, drinking glasses, food debris will surely attract sugar ants. If ever you are going to leave dishes in the sink, make sure that you rinse them.
• Take the trash out daily. Empty the garbage every day will help remove the possible sources of food waste that will attract sugar ants. Also, make sure that your trash bins are tightly sealed lids to help prevent sugar ants from getting in it.

Your Questions Answered

Now you should know how to detect sugar ant infestation and how to control it. If you have more questions left related to the topic, read this section to find answers.

1. Will Sugar Ants Go Away on Their Own?

If you see an army of ants in your kitchen, most likely they’re there for a reason. Ants search for food, and are attracted by spills, crumbs on the counter, uncovered fruits, and leftovers. Sugary foods work as a magnet for these creatures. Thus, the insects may go away on their own if the reason for their infestation is eliminated.

Contain all food to the fridge, cabinets, or under a cover, and clean your kitchen thoroughly. After a little while, there should be no ants left. Naturally, they will only go away until the next time you leave some food out.

2. Are Sugar Ants Active at Night?

Most ant species are nocturnal, so they’re most active during the night and sleep during the day. Sugar ants are no exception. They tend to wake up a couple of hours before the sunset and go into hiding around sunrise. The best time to lay bait and kill the whole ant colony is at night. However, individual ants can be spotted even at midday.

3. How Do You Find a Sugar Ants Nest?

Eliminating the whole colony is the best tactic against sugar ants. To do this, you have to find the sugar ant nest, which may be much more challenging than it first appears. Ants are tiny creatures that easily disappear into small areas, such as cracks between floorboards. Furthermore, ants rarely move in a straight line. Instead, they walk in zig-zags, making direction detection nearly impossible.

So, how do you find the ant nest? Firstly, don’t try to pursue a single insect. Wait until you spot a few, then you might have a chance to follow the way to their home. If you don’t succeed, search for clues of their presence. Check the most humid areas around pipes, kitchen sink, or backyard door. Finally, watch out for dead ants. They tend to die close to the nest, so piles of dead insects in a certain area may indicate their home.

If you still can’t track the ant nest, check the most common places of their habitat. These include areas around pet food and water bowls, cracks in walls and floor, air conditioning and heating units, trashcans, under the fridge, and insulation.

4. What Harm Do Sugar Ants Cause?

Sugar ants are generally considered harmless. After all, they’re tiny, aren’t venomous, and don’t damage your house, unlike some other ant species. This doesn’t mean they should peacefully walk around your house untouched, though, and we’ll explain why in a minute. The issues arising from sugar ants merely depend on their numbers.

Sugar ants may gnaw their way to food sources through plastic, cardboard, or paper. They can damage your storage containers, spill rice or milk, and cause other minor yet annoying inconveniences. Sugar ants may also contaminate your food and water, as they carry bacteria around the house with them.

Another issue with sugar ants is that they attract other insects, in particular spiders and centipedes. And, while some spiders help to get rid of flies and mosquitoes and are harmless, others may be dangerous. Centipedes are the kind of insect that should never get inside your house as the absolute majority of them are venomous.

Last but not least, although a sugar ant bite isn’t painful, it may cause allergy in individual cases.

5. How Do I Get Rid of Tiny Ants on My Kitchen Counter?

The first step in eliminating ants from your kitchen is finding the infestation reason. There should be a source they’re attracted to, usually bits of food or water left in easy access. Sometimes, ants may go away on their own if you clear the source, but this doesn’t always help.

If ants don’t seem to leave your house, you should spot their nest. We’ve explained how to do this a couple of questions earlier. Then, kill the whole ant colony by pouring special chemicals directly into the nest.

Even if you got rid of the nest, it’s highly unlikely that all ants were there at the time. Some may be still walking around your kitchen. You should clean it, particularly the counter, thoroughly. Wiping surfaces with a damp cloth won’t suffice. Start with changing and washing the trashcan. Afterward, use soap and water to clean your counter, table, and all cabinet shelves.

Spray surfaces with a mix of water and vinegar to disinfect them. This will also eliminate the ant’s sense of smell, causing them to lose the ant trail. Use the same solution to spray all potential ant entry routes. These include window and door frames and gaps in floors and walls. You may use specially designated liquid with a more pleasant smell for this purpose.

Lastly, check all your food containers, fridge, and other items in the kitchen for damage. If you notice ants have infested your food, we recommend throwing it away to avoid contamination. Plus, some ants may be still left inside.

6. How to Get Rid of Sugar Ants on Patio?

Sugar ants are attracted not only by food but also by water. Patios often get soaked in water from the lawn or may simply serve as a path to your kitchen. Either way, if you spot an ant colony at your patio, it’s worth getting rid of it.

Eliminating ants from a patio is relatively easy compared to getting them away from a kitchen. The only thing you should do is erase the ant trail. This can be done by spraying the patio with a chemical solution, vinegar, boric acid, and sugar, or washing it with dishwashing liquid. You can also try sugar ant traps that can be found in most gardening and DIY stores and contain poison.

Lastly, if neither of the mentioned options helps, call a pest control service on (888) 409-1728. Severe infestation with sugar ants may be extremely hard to get rid of, and professionals use ant control methods that aren’t available to regular consumers.

Resources

• Wikipedia
• Ant Wiki

Habitat

Argentine ants thrive well in subtropical and Mediterranean climates. They don’t do well in extremely cold, arid, humid or tropical environments. They are mainly found in close association with humans and prefer areas that are anthropogenically disturbed. It is capable of colonizing natural ecosystems around the world.

Argentine ants can be typically found on the following areas:

• Cultivated or agricultural lands
• Disturbed areas
• Railroad sidings
• Roadsides
• Urban and suburban areas
• Buildings
• Around stony areas
• Beneath plants
• Fallen and rotting tree limbs
• Tree stumps
• Residential homes
• Forests
• Shrublands
• Around water

These ants are native to the subtropical South American regions covering areas between northern Argentina, southern Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. They have also been reported to occur in California, Oregon and Illinois, USA.

Behavior

Argentine ants rarely disturb each other. Colonies seldom compete with others, unlike most species of ant. Their genetic makeup is so standard that ants from one nest can co-mingle in another nest without being harmed or attacked.  Therefore, they can build super colonies. Some groups of these ants have extraordinary social organization that is responsible for their ecological domination. There is a very large colony which covers areas from San Diego to areas beyond San Francisco, and may have an estimated population of about one trillion ants.

Fights does not occur between members of different super colonies. However, native populations are more genetically diverse and differentiated among colonies and across space, where they form smaller colonies. Argentine ants tend to co-exist even with other species of ants.

Argentine ants are omnivorous. Their food is mostly composed of liquid and a small percentage of solid food, mainly insects. The collected liquid is linked to the feeding of males and workers mostly on carbohydrates, which is the primary nutrient of the liquid food collected. This liquid food consists of nectar or honeydew mostly. The collected solid food is related to the feeding of larvae and queens. Because of its high protein content, this is the primary nutrient consumed by the queen that plays a vital role in her development and egg-laying.

Reproduction

The only member of the colony that can lay eggs is the queen, since workers are completely sterile, however they can rear the brood into sexuals, in colonies that have no queen. Argentine ants can produce three different types of individuals: males, queens and workers. They also produce three types of immature ants: egg, larvae and pupae. Argentine ants have an intranidal mating system, which means that they do not engage in mating flights, as it takes place in the nest.

Once fertilized, the queen cuts off her wings. This facilitates ovarian maturation and consequent production of eggs. Fertilized eggs, also known as diploid eggs, will develop into female ants (both workers and queens), and the non-fertilized eggs, known as haploid eggs will develop into male ants. 

Danger?

Argentine ants invade crops and plantations because of the mutualistic interactions with hemipterans, which can affect the production and growth of the host plant. It’s also been found that they can transfer a pathogenic fungus that also affects the growth of crops in plantations.

These ants do not have stingers and only bite when provoked. However, the bites are not severe and pose no major health risks.

Their bites are not a major concern, but they are known to crawl over sewage, trash and dead animals while foraging for food, hence they are probable carriers of disease-causing bacteria for conditions such as dysentery. They can contaminate food.

There have been reported cases that they have been seen attacking poultry chicks and destroy beehives. 

Signs of an Argentine Ant Infestation

The most common sign of Argentine ant infestation is seeing the trails of ants, often travelling up on walls, buildings, trees and shrubs. The trails are often large and noticeable.

Argentine ants are “trailing ants” which means that thousands of ants will walk single file following a trail that about 200 feet or longer from their nest going to a food source. The trail is one of the major indicators that they are present and are nesting near your home. Other signs include:

• Foul, musty smell that they omit when crushed
• Ants present in large numbers; on beds, furniture, and clothing, or in cupboards, food pantries, refrigerators, stoves etc
• Ants flocking to areas of moisture such as around pipes or bathroom areas

Controlling Argentine Ants

Controlling Argentine ants, locating their nests and hiding places can be challenging, especially when they have found their way into your home or building. It is necessary to locate where they are entering your property and to locate the nests where they are living in.

These ants are a common household pest, often entering facilities foraging for water and food, actively during dry or hot weather. They also enter buildings or homes to escape flooded nests or heavy rainfall. 

Indoor Control

You can use diatomaceous earth like Harris Diatomaceous Earth indoors to get rid of Argentine Ants, by dusting the trails, feeding sites and nest entrances. You can also use ant baits inside the house to attract the ants and have them bring the poison back to the colony and possibly kill the nest.

Baits are best used to control Argentine ant invasion by using workers as a vehicle for transmission. The worker ants will feed on the bait and transmit the toxins through trophallaxis to larvae and the queens. These commercial baits contain an active toxic ingredient as an attractant in the form of a food resource. This type of control method has resulted in significant reductions in numbers of Argentine ants in infested areas.

Outdoor Control

You can use slow-acting poison bait like fipronil based insecticides such as Taurus SC. Taurus SC has 91% Fipronil and has immediate effects. Directions include up to four (4) applications per year at 0.03% dilution rate on outside surfaces and along the foundation perimeter of infested structures. The ants get lured into these baits and bring back a poisonous substance to the nest which kills the remaining ants. Once you are able to find the nest, you can also use insecticides to drench the nest and drown the rest of the colony. 

Best Products to Get Rid of Odorous House Ants

Inside the House:

Argentine ants are difficult to manage or control within structures. When colonies are removed from a building, new colonies quickly move in to the area and nests again. It is important to have the inside and outside of the infested structure surveyed to locate all the colonies. These ants nests are in moist areas. Some recommended products that you can use inside the house are:

Recommended Bait Types:

Advion Ant Bait Gel

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Optigard Ant Gel

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Best Products for Outside the House:

For outdoor spraying or drenching, you must apply enough insecticide to soak the nest and to drown the ants.

You would spray the outside with Taurus around the perimeter. Usually spraying the perimeter is enough treatment for Argentine ants.

Use Dominion 2L as both a perimeter treatment and to spray foliage, turf, flower beds and ground cover.

Recommended Sprays:

Taurus SC

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Dominion 2L

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Seeking Professional Help

Locating the nest is a difficult and time-consuming process. If you have tried and do not feel that you are successfully eradicating the ants, you can call for a professional pest control service. Pest control companies have several techniques and treat every infestation differently. They have ample training and have access to more advanced treatments that can help control and manage the infestation more effectively.

Dial (866) 250-4176 for a free exterminator quote!

Preventing Infestations

After a proper and complete treatment, there are things that you can do to prevent re-infestation of Argentine Ants:

• Store food in sealed containers or inside sealed storage boxes or in the fridge.
• Do not leave food on counters or table tops.
• Trim back trees and bushes from the outside of your home so that they cannot use the branches as highways to enter your home.
• Seal cracks and small gaps on the walls, foundation beams, windows and doors.
• Limit areas of moisture around your home.
• Fix any leaky pipes in and outside your house.
• Remove clutter around your home, remove unused materials and other piles of things, re-organize from time to time.
• Store wood piles and other building materials away from the house.

Resources

• Wikipedia
• AntWiki
• Urban Entomology – Texas A&M University
• Invasive Species Compedium
• Commons.wikimedia.org

Habitat

Like Carpenter ants, Crazy ants typically build their nests in rotting wood, and under different types of debris and landscape objects, such as:

• Under mulch
• Under tree bark
• Potted plants
• In vehicles
• Other covered structures

Crazy ants have been found to avoid areas like coastlines, open and warm environments like beaches, that according to studies may be due to their need for cover and large amounts of food.

They colonize away from each other and there are no boundaries between nests. One super colony can spread up to 200km. This type of set-up provides advantages in terms of colony growth, density, survival and productivity.

Their annual rate of spread in the United States by ground migration is about 240 and 360 meters per year in neighborhoods and industrial areas. It’s about 207 meters per year in rural areas. Some spread methods are by means of people, animals and vehicles (like garbage trucks).

These ant species are predominant in the Virgin Islands, Gulf Coast and southern parts of Texas. 

Behavior

Crazy ants are polygamous. This species is less active during cool months, but their reproduction speeds up in the spring throughout summer and fall.

Once crazy ants establish a colony in a new area, they can become extremely dominant. Competition with other ant species can occur because of the consumption of shared resources or through direct clashes and predation of colonies of other ant species.

They are attracted to different sucking hemipterous insects like aphids, mealybugs, scale insects, treehoppers, whiteflies among others, for honeydew. They are also attracted to plant nectar, overripe fruits and other sweet food sources.

In 2014, it’s been discovered that the crazy ants produce and covers themselves with formic acid as a form of antidote to a fire ant’s venom. This is the first known discovery of an example of an insect being able to neutralize another insect’s venom.

Reproduction

Queens of crazy ants lay single white oval-shaped eggs. These eggs attach to the egg mass with saliva by worker ants. The egg stage is about 16 days and is followed by the hatching of larvae which pass through three instars for workers and four instars for male ants, this lasts for 11 days.

Next after pupation, workers bring the pupae to dryer parts of the nest where they are piled into mounds.

After 12 days, adult emergence occurs in the form of adult ant workers, male ants or queens. New discoveries have confirmed that male crazy ants actively fly throughout the year with a peak in numbers during summer months.

Females are produced once a year during late summer, but flight activity of females has not been reported. It is highly possible that queens attract flying males by excreting pheromones to facilitate colony reproduction through budding.

Danger?

Crazy ants invade people’s homes. They nest in crawl spaces and walls, and they damage electrical equipment along the way. These damages result in millions of dollars of losses, according to a report from Blackwell in 2014.

These ants chew through insulation and wiring, causing short circuits. Accumulation of dead ants causes overheating, corrosion, and other mechanical failures. When ants die around the electrical circuits, they release an alarm pheromone which cause other ants to rush over and search for attackers. When large numbers of ants gather like this, it may short out electrical systems.

They also pose a threat to agricultural production, disrupting natural biological control and result in revenue losses from crop damage.  

Signs of an Crazy Ant Infestation

A common sign of crazy ants is seeing huge numbers of worker ants, all being the same size and shape foraging in a quick, haphazard manner with little pattern to their movements.

Controlling Crazy Ants

The control methods used against other invasive ants have not been effective against crazy ants and any large-scale management or suppression of their population has not been documented yet in the United States. Controlling crazy ants involves combinations of chemical and mechanical strategies.

Indoor Control

Baiting crazy ants indoors should be avoided as it may attract foragers into structures. Indoor colonies must be treated with a residual dust pesticide. Dust underneath and inside wall cracks, crevices and other small gaps or spaces with dust pesticide like Delta Dust Insecticide.

Outdoor Control

Baiting for crazy ants has limited results, so it is always better to control crazy ants is to treat entry points, trails and the ant colony itself directly with a spray or dust insecticide. Note, that you need to use either a bait or contact insecticide for indoor management, but not both. Sprays and dust contaminate each other and make them ineffective.

If you opt to use baits, multiple uses of 2 to 3 baits will give the ants options for when they suddenly change food preference. You can use a liquid-like Terro Liquid Ant Bait or a combined bait and station like Maxforce Ant Baits.

Each place or area where crazy ants are present or suspected to be present, should be treated with insecticides like Cyper WSP to kill any existing ants while preventing new colonies from emerging. Spray a good barrier around the home, at least 2 feet high on the side of the building and about 3 to 6 feet out on the ground to provide good protection zone.

Best Products to Get Rid of Crazy Ants

Inside the House:

Every area in the house where crazy ants activity is sighted must be dusted directly or sprayed on directly, with insecticide.

Recommended Bait Types:

Delta Dust

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Demon WP

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Best Products for Outside the House:

For baiting crazy ants outdoors, make sure to combine a variety of different baits and place them in all locations where there are traces of the ants or suspected areas where they enter the house to forage for food.
When spraying, make sure to drench nests or colonies with enough insecticide to kill the remaining ants.

Cyper WSP

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Demon WP

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Maxforce FC

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Consider Seeking Professional Help

Controlling and managing infestation as ubiquitous as crazy ants is quite labor extensive, in addition to their evasiveness, is the rapid growth once they have established a new nest. If you have tried treating them with the available measures and resources available to you, without success, consider having a pest control professional come in and eradicate them.

Dial (866) 250-4176 for a free exterminator quote!

Preventing Infestations

When you’re done with your treatment of appropriate pesticide chemicals, other non-chemical methods can help sustain control and prevent re-infestation of crazy ants:

• Repair leaky pipes and faucets. Ensure that all pipes are working well as moisture attracts the ants.
• Trim tree branches, shrubs and other vegetation that can serve as ant highways to enter the house or the structure.
• Move away piles of building materials. Materials such as stacked wood, stones, bricks, leaf litter, heavy mulch and other debris can serve as harborage, remember that these ants seek cover. You have to move these things as far away from the structure or the perimeter of the house as possible.
• Practice good sanitation. Move furniture from time to time, and make sure not to leave food on counters or out in the open so that you won’t attract foragers in the house.
• Fill gaps and cracks in the structure. Make sure to fill the gaps, crevices and cracks in the walls, the floor, the foundation, baseboards, window frames and sidings to remove any entry point for the ants.

Resources

• Wikipedia
• AntWiki
• National Center for Biotechnology Information
• Mississippi Entomological Museum
• Scientificamerican the Rise of the Crazy Ants
• University of Texas at Austin, College of Natural Sciences

Habitat

Carpenter ants reside outdoors and indoors in moist or damp environments and wooden structures. Look for piles of wood shavings if you suspect an infestation by carpenter ants.

These wood shavings are called frass. Frass is a combination of sawdust, insect parts, and dead ants.

Indoors, they can be found:

• Around or under the windows
• Base boards
• Behind dishwashers
• Around bath tubs
• Sinks
• Poorly flashed chimneys
• Door frames

Outdoors, they can be found:

• Decaying wood
• Hollow wood
• Roof eaves
• Roof decks
• Porches

These ants can build nests throughout USA, most common in the North. They usually build a parent colony and a satellite colony. Mature colonies contain 10.000 – 30.000 workers, the larger ones can have up to 50.000 individuals. They are known to build extensive underground tunneling systems that lead to a food source.

There are galleries in their nests that are clean and have a sandpaper appearance. Woods that have been hollowed by carpenter ants do not contain mud-like materials as opposed to that of termites.

The Black carpenter ant is native and central to the east and northern America.

Behavior

Carpenter ants are known to be both predators and scavengers. They forage for sugary foods and eat parts of other insects. Their common staple is the “honeydew” produced by aphids or the nectar produced by plants. They are attracted sugary liquids too such as juice, honey or syrup.

Carpenter ants are mostly active at night, foraging for parts of dead insects. When they discover one, the worker ants surround it and extract its bodily fluids and bring it back to the nest. They can forage individually, in small or large groups wich makes it hard to control them. When workers find food sources, they relay this information to the colony and use biochemical pheromones to mark the shortest trail that can be taken from the nest to the food source. Workers going to and from the source forms the foraging trail until the food is depleted. These trails can be found above or below ground.

Carpenter ants are not extremely aggressive, but they have mechanisms to maximize their provision from a food source when there are competing organisms trying to get supply from the same source. Sometimes they colonize an area close to a consistent food supply and then develop a systemic way to visit the source with alternating trips by other groups of ants.

Its worth noting that these ants build and create tunnels in wood, but they do not and cannot consume wood, since they are unable to digest cellulose.

Reproduction

During warm and humid weather, winged male ants and female carpenter ants engage in a nuptial flight. They take off from their satellite nests and the female mates with several males in while in flight. The males die after mating, while the queens discard their wings and begin to establish new primary nests. The queen deposits around 20 eggs to build this new nest, she nurtures these younglings as they grow until they become full grown workers.

The worker ants eventually aid the queen in caring for the brood, and the queen, as she lays more and more eggs. Within a few years, reproductive winged ants are born in the nest, allowing for the making of new colonies. New satellite colonies are established and the process repeats if the nests are left untreated.

Danger?

Carpenter ants do not sting, but the larger workers can give a sharp bite, which can become further irritated because they inject the formic acid which they produce.

The behavior of Carpenter ants can result in serious damage in wood and other structures. Several species of Carpenter ants are capable of destroying healthy wood in which they nest. Since there is no external signs of damage, this is dangerous especially in parts that have already become hollow because of the tunnel systems they have built.

Signs of an Carpenter Ant Infestation

Seeing accumulated shredded fragments of wood, like that of a coarse sawdust, typically containing dead body parts of insects and/or fragments of insulation – this a good indication that a carpenter ant nest is nearby.

Besides checking for debris, you can also verify an infestation by probing the wood inside the house or the building by tapping the surface with the blunt end of a screwdriver, listening for the hollowed sound of damaged wood. If a nest is present, carpenter ants often will respond to this stimulus with a rustling sound within the nest like that of the crinkling sound of cellophane.

When you can expose the part they have hollowed, you will see smoothed galleries, and this is a big difference with that of a termite infestation.

Controlling Carpenter Ants

Locating and destroying the nest is the best way to control carpenter ants. 

To get rid of carpenter ants Indoors, use commercial liquid ant baits, such as the Terro Liquid Ant Bait. The ant bait will lure the ants out of their hiding places, where the ants will feed on the bait. They then take the toxin back to their nest, sharing it with the others, effectively killing the carpenter ants and wiping out the rest of the colony.

Treat wall voids and other hidden spaces, where they maybe entering, by drilling a series of holes of about 1/8 inch and puffing Boric Acid powder inside. The boric acid powder will fill the hidden void and kill the ants in contact.

When controlling carpenter ants Outdoors, you need to follow or trace the trail to find their nest. Common places are moist and soft, rotting wood softened by fungus or under a log. Once the nest is found, treatment can begin by spraying or drenching the nest with an insecticide such as Carbaryl (Sevin). If an outdoor nest is found, the homeowner should inspect it at night, with ample lighting, to help trace where they may be more trails to other nests.

Best Products to Get Rid of Carpenter Ants

Inside the House:

Carpenter ants can infiltrate homes and get into your food and water sources, and even cause structural damage. So, it is important to know which products can best help you get rid of Carpenter ants.

Recommended Bait Types:

Terro Liquid Ant Baits

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Harris Liquid Ant Killer

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Best Products for Outside the House:

For outdoor spraying or drenching, you must apply enough insecticide to soak the nest and kill the ants.

Recommended Non-Repellent Ant Sprays:

Fuse Insecticide

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Selvin – Carbaryl Insecticide

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Taurus SC

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Seeking Professional Help

Often, it will be challenging to get rid of carpenter ants yourself. It can be challenging to locate and destroy the nests. If you hit a wall, since this takes a lot of time and effort, you can call a licensed professional pest control operator. Pest control companies usually apply several approaches and treat every ant problem differently. Some of them attempt to locate the nest and then selectively treat those specific areas.  Other companies take the “shot-gun” approach where they drill, dust as many potential voids in the wall and structure as possible. Most apply a perimeter spray treatment around the area to prevent re-infestation.

Dial (866) 250-4176 for a free exterminator quote!

Preventing Infestations

After treatment, here are several steps that you can take to reduce the chances of re-infestation:

• Stack firewood far from the foundation. Make sure it’s placed on an elevated area
• Do not store firewood in the garage or other areas of the home
• Eliminate wood-to-ground contact
• Repair roof leaks, plumbing leaks and other moisture problems which will attract carpenter ants
• Trim tree limbs and vegetation touching the roof or siding of the house, as these serve as bridges for the ants and gives them ways to enter the home
• Seal cracks and openings around the foundation, especially where utility pipes and wires enter from the outside.

Resources

• Wikipedia
• AntWiki
• Entomology.ca.uky.edu
• Ants.com

Habitat

Pavement Ants have adapted well to urban areas and are usually build their nests underground where there is little vegetation such as:

• Sidewalks
• Driveways
• Patios
• Crevices on walls of buildings

Their nests are about 13 to 52 square feet and 18 to 35 inches deep. Colonies may have up to 3,000 to over 10,000 ant workers. Pavement ants have polygene colonies, where there is more than one queen. You can identify them when you see entrance holes surrounded by small crater-shaped mounds of sand during warm seasons. They can protect a territory of about 450 square feet.

Pavement Ants are found mostly in the eastern and southern states of North America. 

Behavior

Pavement Ants are known for their aggressive behavior toward nest intruders. They can often be found in a fight with other ants or even entire colonies and will fight to injury or death. They are active during the day foraging for food and bringing it back to the nest. They also use chemical signals to communicate with one another. When searching for food, the worker ants will leave a chemical trail by wiping their gasters on the ground as they walk.

Pavement Ants will eat anything, including:

• Other insects
• Seeds
• Honeydew
• Bread
• Meats
• Nuts
• Cheese

Pavement Ants are also drawn toward sugary food like sweets and Ice cream. They store seeds and grains in their nest for later use. They also drink nectar produced by the lycaenid caterpillar.

Reproduction

Virgin queens and male ants fly into the air to mate; known as their nuptial flight. This nuptial flight occurs in spring or summer where queens and drones leave the nest and a find a mate. After mating, they both lose their wings and the young queens set out to start their nests while the male ants die. The queen stores all the sperm from the mating, enough from one flight, so that she can fertilize eggs for the rest of her life.

The queen must raise the first generation of young by herself until they are old enough to gather food. During this time, she survives by using up the proteins of her flight muscles. It takes two to three months from the time that the eggs hatch and develop, and they spend that time tending to the queen.

Pavement Ant colonies can grow very quickly and large since there are more than one egg layer. One queen will lay anywhere from five to up to forty eggs per day. Fertilized eggs become workers or other queens, and unfertilized eggs either develop into male ants or are eaten by the colony.

Are Pavement Ants Dangerous?

Pavement Ants excavate huge amounts of soil and sand from under roads, building foundations and walkways. Through the passage of time, this kind of activity can result to sinking and settling of the soil leading to structural damage of the above surface. However, the most common complaint is infestation at people’s homes where the ants are foraging for food which is of no real danger.

It is worth noting that worker Pavement Ants do have a small stinger, which can cause discomfort in humans and lead to skin irritation. 

Signs of a Pavement Ant Infestation

Most common signs indoors, is seeing these ants on your counter tops, kitchen, pantry, cupboards, kitchen cabinets and anywhere food is kept. Outdoors, you will see a lot of them in pavements, building foundations, wall cracks or crevices. You would notice piles of soil or sand around the area where they are taking refuge as this is the material they have excavated from their nest.

Controlling Pavement Ants

Spraying driveways, walkways or crevices directly is rarely effective since this only kills the workers on the surface. Given the large quantity of workers in one colony, they will just send more of them to continue foraging for food. An effective way to get rid of pavement ants indoors is by setting up bait stations along the observed ant trail. This will attract workers and carry it back to the nest where the queen will feed on it. This will help kill both the queen and its eggs.

You can try chemical ant baits like Terro Ant Killer II which is specifically designed to deliver fast-acting elimination of the ants that you see and those that you don’t. These types of products are specifically formulated to allow ants to consume the product and survive long enough to bring them back to the nest and deliver a dose to the rest of the colony. Make sure that you leave the product undisturbed while the ants are feeding on it and eliminate all other food sources that may divide their attention or distract them from only going to your bait as the food source. Indoor colonies may also be treated with residual dust pesticides like Delta Dust Insecticide. Dust inside crevices or wall cracks and underneath base boards.

You can also make your own bait, by mixing household borax with honey or syrup.

Outdoor Control

For control outdoors, you must trace the ant trail back to their below-ground nest and drench it with insecticide spray.

Drenching means applying enough of the liquid insecticide to drown all the ants in the nest and the surrounding area. Make sure to read the product label for specific directions. Pets and children should be kept away from the treated area for a few hours. You can try Cyper WP which is available in 1lb containers.

Best Products to Get Rid of Pavement Ants

Inside the House:

Baiting Pavement Ants is the most effective way one of getting rid of them, since it will also kill those that are not visible to you. Mix the baits with protein based or sugar-based food to attract and kill them and the rest of their colony and even their queen.

Recommended Bait Types:

Terro Ant Killer II

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Advance 375A Ant Bait

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Maxforce FC Ant Killer Bait Gel

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Best Products for Outside the House:

For outdoor spraying, make sure to spray a good barrier around the home. And make sure to apply enough insecticide to soak the nest and to drown the ants using a gallon sprayer.

Cyper WSP Insecticide

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Demon WP Insecticide

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Consider Seeking Professional Help

Homeowners can find it challenging to find and treat the ant colony, as it requires time and patience. Ant colonies need to be traced and they are sometimes tricky to find. You have the option to call an exterminator to help you find the ant colony. They have effective and professional tools and other resources to end the infestation in your area. Dial (866) 250-4176 for a free exterminator quote!

Preventing Pavement Ant Infestations

After applying the appropriate chemicals, these steps will help maintain control and prevent re-infestation:

• Observe and practice sanitation. Clean up and move things around from time to time to limit the possible areas where the ants can hide.
• Keep food preparation stations to specific areas. Limit the number of areas in your home where you prepare snacks or meals and where family members eat. Make sure to clean the area thoroughly after meal preparations and after eating.
• Cover up cracks and gaps.  Cracks or small spaces on the wall, flooring, foundations, baseboard, window frames and door frames can serve as entry points for ants, so it is highly recommended that you fill them with caulk or similar to block off any possible entry points.
• Remove stacked or piled materials around your house. Keep away piles of lumber, stones, bricks, heavy mulch or other debris around your home. These serve as potential ant harborage, so it’s best to keep them in a place far from the house.
• Trim branches of trees and shrubs. Cut or trim tree branches and other vegetation around your house that touches the structure, as these can serve as ant highways and gives them access in and out of your home, bringing the food back to their colonies. 

Resources

• Wikipedia
• AntWiki
• AnimalDiversity.Org

Habitat

Odorous house ants are opportunists, nesting both indoors and outdoors. This species moves in trails and they are most likely to invade buildings during rainy weather. Inside the house you are likely to find odorous house ants in places where moisture and sweets are accessible including the following:

• Walls – especially near hot water pipes
• Leaky fixtures
• Toilet lids
• Kitchen counters and baseboards
• Cupboard
• House plants
• Wood damaged by termites

Outside your home, you can find them everywhere; underneath rocks, logs, mulch, or debris. In the nests of birds or mammals or underneath rotting wood and in exposed soil.
Odorous house ants can be found across the United States (native to North America) but they are less common in the southwest.

Behavior

Odorous house ants are attracted to sweets and moisture. This scavenger/predator ant will eat most household foods and will forage for food day and night. This species prefers to eat sweet foods but will also consume seeds, plant secretions and other protein-based food like insects.  During the rainy season, you will find them searching your kitchen for food. 

They can usually be found travelling in lines following the chemical trail of pheromones they lay down, but if disturbed, they will run around your home randomly.
Outside your home, they can be found searching for honeydew which is being produced by aphids and scale insects.

Similar to the other ants, there is a division of labor; some ants gather food while others tend to their young.

Reproduction

Colony size ranges from 100 to 100,000 Ants, and can be easily driven away by invading Argentine Ants. Female queens in the nest lay only one egg daily. Depending on the temperature and other variables it takes 34 – 83 days for the young to reach adulthood. These ants develop by complete metamorphosis from egg, larva and pupa to adult.

New colonies are created in two possible ways. In the summer months, the colony produces winged male and female reproductives who swarm out to mate. The fertilized female establishes a new colony. The second way new colonies are formed is when a queen and workers bud off from the main colony and form their own new colony.

Danger?

Odorous house ants cannot be considered as a health risk but they can contaminate your food. This species of ants are able to bite but they do not cause much pain. Once nests are established in your home, odorous house ants are difficult to eliminate. 

Signs of an Odorous Ant Infestation

The first signs of odorous house ants are foraging worker ants. Winged swarmers might also be observed during the summer months.

Controlling Odorous House Ants

Baiting is the most effective way to get rid of the entire ant colony. The preferred method is to use ant traps with both sugar-based baits and protein/grease-based baits.

Recommended Product: Maxforce Ant Bait Stations

When dealt with early, colonies can be brought under control in just a few days. Controlling larger populations will take longer – up to a few weeks.

Using chemicals or dust is not recommended for controlling odorous house ants indoors. These products will stress the colonies, causing them to scatter and to split into sub-colonies. This scattering (budding) multiplies the number of Ant colonies and will multiply your Ant problem.

Outdoor Control

Mound Treatment

Ant mounds can be eliminated by drenching the mound with Demon WP or Cynoff insecticide, using a sprayer. Always read the directions on the label and keep pets and children away from the treated area until the solution has dried.

Spray Outdoor Perimeter

Sprays like Talstar or Demon WP can be used outdoors to create a good barrier around the home that prevents entry. A fan spray that is at least 3 feet high on the side of the building and 3 to 6 feet out on the ground will provide excellent protection

Best Products to Get Rid of Odorous House Ants

Inside the House:

The best products to use inside the house are ant baits as these are very effective on this type of ant in that the workers will eat a fluid bait, where they won’t eat a granular bait.

There are two recommended bait types to use for Odorous House Ants. Sugar based and Protein/Grease based.

Its best to select one of each of the two types of bait because at different times, the ants will ignore one bait and go at the other.

Recommended Bait Types:

Sugar Based Bait:

Advion Ant Bait Gel

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Protein/Grease Based Bait:

Advance375a Ant Bait

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Ant Bait Stations:

The use of Ant Bait Stations to better control the location and application of the bait within the home.

Stations keep the bait in a tidy movable container which also helps to prevent the family pet from sniffing the bait.

Bait stations allow you to use bait in carpeted rooms.

For more information on ant bait stations click here to see our full Ant Traps and Bait Stations Review.

Recommended Ant Bait Station:

Maxforce FC Ant Bait Stations

Buy Now

Best Products for Outside the House:

Outside the house, you can use non-repellent insecticide sprays to protect your house from odorous house ants getting inside.

By spraying around the entire foundation of the house, you effectively create a perimeter to block ants trails.

If you find ant mounds in the garden or near your house, you can use the same sprays to treat the ant mound directly.

Recommended Non-Repellent Ant Sprays:

Fuse Insecticide

Buy Now

Taurus SC

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Preventing Infestations

• Baiting is the most reliable way to eliminate the entire colony. Best method is to use both the sugar-based baits and protein/grease-based baits.
• Best insecticides for Odorous Ant control are non-repellent insecticides such as FUSE Insecticide or Taurus SC.
• Step one in ant control is preventing the ants to enter your house in the first place.
• Knowing that they are attracted to moisture (or water), you should start getting rid of them by eliminating standing water. 
• Ant proof your home and cut branches of trees or plants, if the ants are using them to get into your house. 
• If you have firewood piles or building materials outside your home, make sure that they are stored away from your house.
• If there are cracks or openings in the cladding of your house, make sure you seal them with polyurethane foam or caulk.  
• Rocks, and other probable nests for them should be relocated to a place far from your house. 
• Keep your food sealed and counters clean.

Resources

• Wikipedia
• Tapinoma sessile on Antwiki
• Odorous House Ants as Back-Seat Drivers of Localized Ant Decline in Urban Habitats
• Images of the Odorous house ant