Unless they’re in an ant farm, ants are annoying anywhere they show up. They can ruin a backyard picnic or sneak into your home. Keeping ants out of your house is a challenge, and it helps to know your enemy. The most common type of ant seen in homes is Tapinoma sessile, better known as the odorous house ant. Here are four things you should know about odorous house ants and how to maintain an ant-free home.
Distinguishing Features of Odorous House Ants
Odorous house ants have features that make them distinguishable from other ants. Their most prominent feature, their smell, has become the namesake of these ants. Odorous house ants have a foul smell that comes from their body when they are crushed. As for their look, these insects have dark brown or black bodies. They are also tiny and tend to measure between 2.4-3.25mm long.
Some additional features can be noticed if you look closely at one of these ants. Odorous house ants have an unevenly shaped thorax, as well as a single node on their petiole (a slender connective stalk), hidden by their abdomens. Knowing the type of ants that are infesting a building makes it easier to choose the right strategy for removing these pests. Premier Pest Management can help you identify and eliminate any bug or pest problem on your property.
Odorous House Ant Colony Size
By the time you’ve seen an odorous house ant in your building, the infestation has already begun. Ants are not solitary creatures, and for every one you see, there are hundreds more in a nearby colony. Odorous house ant colonies can have a single queen with hundreds or workers or megacolonies with thousands of workers and hundreds of queens. The queens of these colonies produce thousands of additional ants, so a small problem can turn into a huge one if you don’t handle it quickly. Premier Pest Management has resources that can stop the problem at its source. We kill the ants you see, the ones you don’t, and prevent them from returning.
Where Do Odorous House Ants Live
Odorous house ants can live in many environments which is one of the reasons they can be hard to remove from your home or office. These ants can thrive indoors and outdoors, as well as in various conditions. On the outside of a property, odorous house ants create colonies in the shallow soil beneath stones, boards, logs, mulch, debris, etc. During the times of year where there is a lot of precipitation (i.e., rain or snow) odorous ants will head indoors. Once inside, they look for places that have similar qualities to the locations they would outdoors. For example, odorous house ants can create nests in the wall voids around hot water pipes and heaters, under sinks, behind cabinets and beneath the floor. You will often see odorous house ants traveling in trails throughout the day, as they forage day and night. Premier Pest Management has the tools and experience to find locations where ants are hiding and eliminate the problem at the source.
What Odorous House Ants Eat
Odorous house ants show as much variety in their eating habits as they do in their living conditions. When setting up shop inside your building, these ants will feed on most items found in homes and buildings, but research suggests they prefer things that are high in sugars. When they are nesting in your yard, odorous house ants will feed on honeydew excreted by aphids and on nectar from flowers and buds. Identifying and removing sources of foods for odorous ants is part of the process Premier Pest Management uses to keep your building free from odorous house ants.
Whether it’s odorous house ants or another species (e.g., carpenter ants or pavement ants), Premier Pest Management can help. Our team of professionals can rid your home of all forms of ants and other pests commonly found in and around Salisbury MD. Give us a call at 443-235-2782 or send us a message online to schedule an appointment for an estimate.
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