Ants

Looking for information on a specific Ant? Below you will find quick links to the Ants listed here:

Acrobat Ant Carpenter Ant Fire Ant Pavement Ant White Footed Ant

Argentine Ant Cornfield Ant Ghost Ant Pharaoh Ant

Big Headed Ant Crazy Ant Odorous Ant Pyramid Ant

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Acrobat Ant (Crematogaster Spp.) Color: Light brown to dark brownish black and have two nodes. Workers: One size with heart-shaped abdomen. Nesting: They nest outdoors in soil, leaves and wood; indoors in buildings voids and insulation. May be found in wood previously tunneled by termites or carpenter ants, also in rigid foam insulation. Location: Throughout the United States. Food Facts: Variety of foods including sweets and protein.

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Argentine Ant (Linepithema humile) Color: One node, small, shiny, brown. Workers: One size. Nesting: They nest outdoors under logs, concrete slabs, debris, and mulch. They build large colonies and can move rapidly. In winter they move indoors. Location: Throughout the southeastern United States and California. Food Facts: Sweets, fats, oils may take them away from bait.

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Big-Headed Ant (Pheidole spp.) Color: Several dozen species ranging from light brown to dark reddish brown. Workers: Two sizes (one size has an enormous head to crack seeds.) Nesting: It is rare that big-headed ants live indoors; preferring protected outdoors areas under logs, mulch, firewood, or patio blocks. Active foragers,and trails are common along sidewalks, foundations, and inside along baseboards and under carpets. Location: Throughout the United States. Food Facts: Feeds on insects, protein, grease, sweets, seeds.

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Carpenter Ant (Componotus spp.) Color: One node and with many varieties of different colors - tan, red, black. Workers: Many Sizes. Nesting: Carpenters ants hollow out dead, most wood in trees, firewood and fence posts to build nests, but they don't eat wood. Inside, they build colonies in wall voids, foam insulation, eaves, crawlspaces. Location: Throughout the United States. Food Facts: Feed on insects, insect secretions during the summer. Often invade structures in spring and fall looking for other sources of food. Forages at night during summer months. Like sweets.

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Cornfield Ant (Lasius alienus) Color: Brown to black in color. Workers: One size. Nesting: Nests in lawns, between cracks in sidewalks, and under rocks. Location: Throughout the United States. Occasional house pest in the northern states. Food Facts: Enters homes in search of food, typically an uninvited guest at picnics. Likes sweets.

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Crazy Ant (Paratrechina longicornis) Color: Dark brown to black, body often has faint bluish iridescence due to gray hairs. Workers: One size. Easy to identify by observing it's rapid and erratic movements. Nesting: Highly adaptable, living in both very dry and rather moist habitats. It often nests some distance away from it's foraging area in such places as trash, refuse, cavities in plants and trees, rotten wood, and in soil under objects. A crazy ant nest site can be found by looking for workers carrying food back to the nest. Location: Throughout the United States Food Facts: They prefer high-protein in summer months.

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Fire Ant (Solenopsis spp.) Color: Red imported fire ant, black imported fire and, tropical fire ant, and the mature southern fire ant all have painful strings. Workers: Many sizes. Nesting: Usually build mounds outdoors in sunny areas and are very aggressive. Colonies can grow to hundreds of thousands. Location: Throughout southern states. Food Facts: Eats almost any plant or animal matter. Prefers high-protein foods.

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Ghost Ant (Tapinoma melanocephalum) Color: Head and thorax dark to black, abdomen and legs opaque. Workers: One size. Nesting: Ghost ants usually nest outdoors under stones, logs, firewood or in potted plants, but they build colonies behind baseboards, in wall voids, and in cabinets of buildings where they find food. Location: Significant pest in Florida and Hawaii. In the northern states, it is sometimes found in greenhouse-infested plants shipped from Florida. Food Facts: Feeds on dead insects, sweets, and other food.

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Odorous House Ant (Tapinoma sessile) Color: Dark brown to black. Workers: One size. Bitter odor when crunched - smells like rotten coconuts. Nesting: Nests in a wide variety of places outdoors and inside. These ants commonly construct shallow nests in soil underneath objects, such as stones, patio blocks, and debris. Inside, they prefer areas with moisture such as around hot water pipes and heaters. Odorous House Ant have multiple queens. The ants forage when temperatures are cool, even down to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Location: Throughout the United States. Food Facts: Strongly trailing ants; it tends aphids for honeydew and prefers dead insects, sweets, and meat.

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Pavement Ant (Tetramorium caespitum) Color: Two nodes, dark brown. Workers: One size, small, with small stingers. Nesting: Nesting along sidewalks and foundations of buildings, near firewood, stones, brick, mulch, etc. They forage in trails form outside colonies to indoor food sources, far from nests. May throw soil out on top of concrete slabs when inside buildings; swarm in buildings. Location: Throughout the United States. Food Facts: They eat dead insects, greasy food, sweets, pet food. Often access structures via plumbing pipes and move to upper building floors.

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Pharaoh Ant (Monmorium pharaonis) Color: Yellow with a reddish abdomen. Workers: One size. Nesting: Typically builds nests in wood, wall voids, baseboards, etc. Colonies are quite large, with many queens. Location: Throughout the United States, most commonly in the southern states. In northern states, species will nest in heated buildings. Common hospital pest. Food Facts: Likes fats/oils. They prefer warm humid areas near food and water.

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Pyramid Ant (Dorymyrmex spp.) Color: Reddish head and thorax black abdomen. Workers: One size. Nesting: Nesting outdoors, constructs nests in soil in open, sunny areas that are free of vegetation. Excavated soil is distributed in a circle around the mound entrance. Mounds are 2 to 4 inches in diameter and may be located near the nests of other ants. Location: Thought out the United Stats, most common in southern states. Food Facts: Partial to sweets, but will also eat other insects.

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White-Footed Ant (Technomyrmex albipes) Color: Dark body; the key distinguishing feature is the pale light color on the tarsi on all sex legs. Workers: One size. Nesting: Literally any object on the ground, heavy vegetation or trees can be used as a nesting site. It has also been observed nesting in dead wood cavities of trees. Foraging trails are pronounced and easy to find outdoors. Indoors they will nest in wall voids and plants. Location: Well-established throughout southeastern United Stats and Island of Oahu in Hawaii. Food Facts: Likes sweets.