Color | Red imported fire ant, black imported fire ant, tropical fire ant, and the mature southern fire ant all have painful stings. |
Workers | Many sizes. |
Food facts | Eats almost any plant or animal matter. Prefers high-protein foods. |
HABITAT
Nesting | Usually build mounds outdoors in sunny areas and are very aggressive. Colonies can grow to hundreds of thousands. |
Location | Throughout southern states. |
BIOLOGY / CHARACTERISTICS
Color | Many varieties of different colors – tan, red, black. |
Workers | Many sizes. |
Food facts | Feeds on insects, insect secretions during the summer. Often invade structures in spring and fall looking for other food sources. Likes sweets. |
HABITAT
Nesting | Carpenters hollow out dead, moist 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, and crawlspaces. Carpenter ants forage at night during summer months. |
Location | Throughout the United States. |
BIOLOGY / CHARACTERISTICS
Color | Yellow with a reddish abdomen. |
Workers | One size. |
Food facts | Likes fats and oils. |
HABITAT
Nesting | Typically builds nests in wood, wall voids, baseboards, etc. Colonies are quite large, with many queens. They prefer warm humid areas near food and water. |
Location | Throughout the United States, most commonly in southern states. In northern states, species will nest in heated buildings. Common hospital pest. |
BIOLOGY / CHARACTERISTICS
Color | Intensely-black |
Workers | Many sizes (Approximately 2.5 – 3 mm) |
Food facts | Attracted to sweet foods but also eat honeydew which is excreted from sap-sucking insects, as a result they are known to tent to aphids and bugs on domestic plants. They are omnivorous, feeding on insects and worms, as well as vegetation, such as small seeds. |
HABITAT
Nesting | Black house ants usually nest under stones or dry logs. The species can commonly be found in gardens. They are often a pest of domestic environments and will build their nest in cracks or gaps, beside pathways. They also generally enter the home in search of food. Like other ant species, they will nest underground and also in voids, for e.g. roof voids or wall cavities. |
Locations | An Australasian native, they are found in rural and urban areas and are very prevalent in Japan and Australia. |
BIOLOGY / CHARACTERISTICS
Color | Black. |
Workers | One size, very small, similar to pharaoh ant. |
Food facts | Likes sweets, fats, oils. |
HABITAT
Nesting | May build outdoor colonies under rocks, logs, debris, and in landscape mulch. |
Locations | Throughout the United States, but most often in the East. One of the more common house-infesting ants. They nest in wall voids, under carpets, in woodwork, decaying wood, and masonry. Forages to indoor food sources along baseboards and carpet edges. |