Getting Rid of Little Black Ants

When dealing with any ant problem, the most important step is finding the source. Firewood should be stored to avoid the ants building nests in it – off the ground and/or in a contained area. Treating window and door areas can help control these pests from entering. All cracks and openings on windows or doors should be sealed.

After accurately identifying the pest ant and locating the trails of ant activity, remove any attracting substrates or foodstuffs. For example, remove rocks and other debris if activity was located under such items. Trim branches if the ants are using them to scale up the foundation. Cracks in the exterior wall require sealing. If active mounds are located, apply residual insecticides as directed by the label. Perimeter barrier treatments are seldom needed.

Inside the building, place aerosols or dusts in voids where activity has been noted during the inspection. Another option of control is the use of commercially available baits which are effective in controlling the little black ant. Perform follow-up inspections after initial bait placement to ensure that the foragers are feeding on the bait and that plenty of bait is available. Regularly inspect for signs of ant activity to ensure the success of your management program.

About Little Black Ants

The little black ant is named for its small size and jet-black coloring. It is related to the Pharaoh Ant and is about the same size but is shiny black instead of amber or orange. Though the ants live and nest mostly out of doors, they can nest inside structures, most commonly in wood and masonry.

Identification

The ant is one of the smallest, with workers only reaching about 1/16 inch long and queens reaching 1/8 inch long. Their coloring is dark brown to jet black. The antenna has 12 segments with a 3 segmented club on the end. The little black ant’s thorax is unevenly rounded and the pedicel has 2 segments. The ant can sting though the stinger is very weak and small.

Nests are found in soil, stumps, logs and under rocks and bark. They are sometimes found in homes in search of water. They will feed on sweets and fats on kitchen counters. Little black ants have large colonies with thousands of workers and many queens.

Life Cycle & Reproduction

Little black ants live together in colonies and each colony has at least one queen, but can have many. The queen(s) lays eggs that the worker ants guard, feed and defend. Eggs hatch into grubs, which grow into new workers. It takes ten days for ant eggs to hatch. Some ants have wings and if the colony gets too big, these ants fly away, mate, and start new colonies.

Behavior

Little black ants are active both during the day and at night, spending much of their time carrying food back to the nest. This ant is most commonly found outdoors and usually builds nests in the soil under debris, stones, rocks or other objects, as well as in open areas in lawns or turf. The nest opening has a small crater of soil around it. Sometimes, these ants will build their nests indoors behind walls or under carpets. The colonies are small but have numerous queens, and will relocate if they are disturbed. Little black ants can carry 20 times their body’s weight. They forage in trails, which can frequently be seen on foundation walls and along sidewalks outside. During the night, workers move eggs and young larvae deeper underground to protect them from the cold.

Diet

The little black ant has strong jaws but is unable to chew food. Instead they suck out the liquid and leave any solid parts behind. They prefer to eat the sweet honeydew produced by aphids and mealy bugs but they also consume whatever human food they can find. The ants will feed on meats, grease, oil, fruit, vegetables and vegetable products such as corn meal, and sweets. Little black ants also feed on protein from live or dead insects. The workers forage in scent marked trails along the edges of structures such as foundation walls and along sidewalks. They feed on aphids as a source of honeydew, plant secretions, and are predaceous on other insects.

Geographical Territory

The little black ant is a Native American species found throughout the United States. It can be seen in Southern California as well as the San Francisco Bay area, but is most commonly found in the eastern half of the United States.

Damage

Inside a structure, the little black ants can build nests in wood, decaying wood, and masonry.

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Size

Harvester ants are one of the larges ants and can grow as long as ½ inch.

Color

Colors vary depending on species and range from reddish brown to black.

Habits

Harvester ants are very common in urban areas and one nest can house up to 12,000 workers. Harvester ants are very large and have a nasty and painful sting. They will fiercely protect and defend their nest. Nest openings typically have a large, circular, flat area around them, which is created by workers as they clear the nest of any soil or debris. The nests can go as deep as 15 feet and can have a great number of chambers.

Diet

Harvester ants gather and feed on seeds and other vegetation.

Reproduction

Winged males and females swarm, couple and mate and the males die soon after. Females immediately find a nesting site where they drop their wings, dig a burrow and lay their eggs, which develop through several stages to become workers. Once mature, these worker ants care for other developing ants, enlarge the nest and forage for food.

Other Information

Harvester ant colonies are typically widely separated; however, there can be heavy infestations in pasture and rangeland. These ants are known to destroy agricultural crops and can significantly reduce crop yields if left uncontrolled. They colonize in ornamental turf and landscape areas where their presence is undesirable.

Treatment Tips

Harvester ant nests are usually found in open areas, but can also be found under slabs or porches and also in lawns and other landscape areas. It is important to find the source so that you may treat it directly.

Size

This is a highly polymorphic species, with various sizes of workers within a single colony. The largest workers in the colony can be as much as ten times the size of the smallest workers.

Color

The red imported fire ant is covered in long, bristly hairs and is identified by its red head and thorax and red and black abdomen.

Habits

The red imported fire ant is one of the worst ant pests in the U.S. in terms of human health, property damage, and environmental damage. Colonies may have several hundred thousand workers and dozens of queens, and workers very aggressively defend their nest with stinging. Nests are created in the soil and can be identified by the large mound of soil raised above the surface. They are very common in turf. Red imported fire ant nests may go as deep as eight feet in the soil, and produce mounds above ground that are three feet tall and two feet wide. When their mound is disturbed they will rapidly overwhelm the intruder and, on a chemical command, begin stinging simultaneously. Nests may be found in wall voids, rain gutters, bath traps, and under carpets, as well as in electrical equipment.

Diet

The workers are aggressive predators, feeding on any other insects they find as well as small mammals or birds, earthworms, frogs and lizards. They dramatically alter the natural habitat when they move into an area.

Reproduction

Males die after mating and the female creates a brood cell in the soil and deposits 10-15 eggs using her tubelike ovipositor. These hatch in seven to ten days and are fed by the queen. Within 15 days, pupae emerge and begin to forage for food. Within 30 days, larger workers emerge and the colony grows. The queen lives up to seven years and produces an average of 1,600 eggs per day throughout her life. A red imported fire ant colony can hold more than 250,000 ants.

Other Information

Most red imported fire ant stings result in a raised welt that becomes a white pustule. If a person is allergic, however, he or she may experience a more grave reaction. Victims rarely receive a single sting; instead, a person typically receives many hundred stings simultaneously. Red imported fire ant colonies may contain numerous queens and have multiple satellite colonies. Up to 200 mounds per acre have been found.

Treatment Tips

Due to the large colony size, deep nests, and sensitivity to chemicals, baiting is a preferred method of control, and baits with an oil attractant appear most acceptable. Physical disturbance and flooding of the mounds do not work.

Carpenter ants are a nuisance by their presence when found in parts of the home such as the kitchen, bathroom, living room and other quarters. When 20 or more large winged and/or wingless ants are found indoors, in the daytime near one location, it is possible that the colony is well established in the home and the nest may have been extended into sound wood, sometimes causing structural damage. They do not eat wood, but often remove quantities of it to expand their nest size. However, if only one to two large wingless ants are erratically crawling, they may simply be foraging for food with the nest located outside. Outdoors, they are frequently seen running over plants and tree trunks or living in moist, partly rotten wood stumps.

Identification

Carpenter ants range in color from tan to black and are usually 1/4 – 3/8 inch-long. They are some of the largest ants found in homes and yards. The most common indoor species has a black tail (abdomen) and reddish-brown head and thorax, though the winged forms of this ant may be entirely black. Other carpenter ants (workers, swarmers) can range in colors from yellow to black. Possible distinguishing characteristics of these ants can include a pinched waist, elbowed antennae (these characteristics also distinguish ants from termites), a single bump or node between the abdomen and thorax, and an evenly sized rounded thorax (if viewed from the side with a hand lens.)

Life Cycle & Reproduction

Most ant colonies start with a single fertilized queen who creates a nesting site in a wood cavity. She raises the workers, which survive eating on her salivary secretions. These first workers gather food and feed the newer larvae. As more and more larvae mature and more worker ants can gather food, rapid growth of the colony occurs. It can take a colony up to six years to reach a mature stage. Once at this stage, a colony may contain more than 2,000 workers, and can begin to produce young queens and males. In the spring, these mature colonies produce winged reproductive ants, called swarmers, which fly out to begin new colonies. It can often be possible for indoor colonies to spread to “satellite colonies”, so homeowners may see large swarms of flying ants inside their homes at night.

Behavior

Large carpenter ant colonies, which can have up to 100,000 workers, are most often discovered nesting in buried or partially buried moist wood such as dead trees, rotting stumps and logs. However, nests can be found inside houses, telephone poles, or other wooden structures. Unfortunately porch pillars, roofs, windowsills, and other wood in contact with soil can be common nesting places for ant colonies. Workers stay on well-marked trails yet manage to maintain contact between the colonies as they travel to find food. Carpenter ants establish a parent colony, but then branch off satellite colonies that may be in the same structure.

Diet

Carpenter ants dine on a wide variety of foods and will forage for water and any food left out inside a house. Although their natural food sources are other insects, plant juices and the honeydew produced by aphids and other insects, they will eat almost any other food item.

Geographical Territory

Carpenter ants live throughout the United States. The black carpenter ant is common in the east; the western carpenter ant in the west.

Damage

Carpenter ants damage wood by excavating and building galleries and tunnels for their nests. The damage you may to wood structures can be variable. Obviously, the longer a colony is present in a structure, the greater the damage can be done. If structural wood is weakened due to large nests (or numerous nests), carpenter ant damage can be severe.

Control

The most successful way to control carpenter ants is to search and destroy their nests. This can be quite difficult if colonies are deep within a wooden structure. Carpenter ants tend to follow distinct scent trails between the satellite colonies and the original nest. Carpenter ants also rely on these scent trails to bring their nest mates to food. Carefully and patiently watching the behavior and trails of the ants can lead homeowners to discovering the carpenter ants’ nests. It is important to keep bushes and trees trimmed and away from touching the house when eliminating Carpenter ants.


Size

The Argentine ant grows to about 1/8 inch long and all workers are the same size.

Color

They are shiny and range in color from dull gray-black to gray-brown.

Habits

Argentine ants build shallow nests in the soil beneath stones, concrete slabs or other debris. They may also be found in piles of lumber, bricks, landscape mulch, insulation, walls and trees. Argentine ant colonies can grow very large with tens of thousands of workers and multiple queens. Colonies often combine becoming one huge super-colony extending over several residential properties. Argentine ants are very aggressive and will drive out other ant species.

Diet

Their primary food source is the sweet honeydew produced by aphids and mealy bugs. Protein foods may be part of their diet, but Argentine ants prefer sugar and will also dine on household food products and garden fruits. They enter houses in search of food and water. Argentine ants are fond of sweets, tuna, syrups, juices, eggs, dead spiders and rodents, vomit, feces and just about any other organic matter they can find.

Reproduction

Colonies contain thousands of workers and many queens, and mating takes place within the confines of the colony. Queens are the only ones that lay eggs. Since Argentine ants have as many as eight queens for every 1,000 workers, they raise more babies, making it very difficult to kill a colony.

Other Information

Though the Argentine Ant is a small, non-stinging ant, it is very territorial and aggressive and will drive away or kill competing ant species. They make a chemical called iridomyr-mecin which they smear on their enemies to kill them or make them run away. Neighboring colonies of Argentine ants appear not to be aggressive toward each other, allowing for the rapid spread and domination of this species.

Treatment Tips

The most important step when dealing with any ant infestation is to find the source.