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Odorous House Ants:

• Description -- The Odorous House Ant is found throughout the United States. This pest is often found foraging for food in long trails over household surfaces and can contaminate food products. Odorous House Ants are tiny, about 1/8”long and are dark brown to black in color. They can be easily identified by the coconut odor that is produced when their bodies are crushed.
  
  
• Life Cycle -- Odorous House Ants may develop huge colonies, ranging in size from several hundred to over 100,000 individuals. These ants can produce hundreds of laying queens and thousand of workers. The male and female reproductive ants are often called winged swarmers. Swarmers first appear in early summer months. The male swarmers will emerge from the parent colony first, followed by the new queen. Odorous House Ant eggs have an incubation period from 11 to 26 days. Each colony will have several queens laying eggs, but each may deposit only one egg per day. The worker and the queens live for several years while males usually die a few days after mating and the mated females begin new colonies. The queens continue laying eggs until late fall. During the winter months you will find adults foraging inside. Cold weather will not stop activity, just decrease it. In spring, workers begin foraging and queens resume their egg laying.
  
  
• Behavior -- Odorous House Ants can nest in many different places, both indoor and out. Inside, these ants usually construct their nests in wall voids, under carpets, behind paneling, in crevices, in cupboards and especially around hot water pipes and heaters. Outside, they are found in exposed soil, mulch, usually shallow, and are often located beneath stone, boards , bricks and other debris, etc. They will use cracks in a house to enter as well as tree limbs. They will most likely enter buildings when their honeydew supply or sweet supply of food is reduced such as during rainy weather. Keep boards, bricks and stored products along with landscaping and vegetation clear and away from the perimeter of the home. Colonies will also move indoors during cooler months and winter. They will form trails along baseboards and under the edge of carpet, this will allow them to move more freely and be hidden from sight.
  
  
• Control -- Odorous House Ants can be very difficult to control. Control can be accomplished if the nest is located and removed. If the nest cannot be located, then baiting is used to control an Odorous House Ant infestation. The most effective ant baits have a slow-acting toxicant that allows the ant to survive with the bait long enough to take it back to the nest to share it with the other members of the colony. With time, the entire colony can be controlled. The important thing to remember when using baits is that you do not use any kind of repellant to kill trailing ants. Treating with chemical repellant will prevent the ants from returning to the nest and sharing the bait with the other ants. Regular inspections and service are very necessary to find and treat new colonies. A continuous perimeter coverage is the best offense to an odorous ant infestation.

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