Odorous House Ants
ODOROUS HOUSE ANTS - also known as the stink ant, stink bug, sugar ant, black ant, and house ant. This ant is a very important household pest and is found all over the U.S. It gets its colorful name due to the fact that if it is crushed it emits a very offensive or foul odor like rotten coconut, so you definitely want to reconsider the cowboy-boot method of control.
Biology - Workers are 2 to 3 mm long and are brownish-black in color. It is frequently confused with the Argentine ant but you can tell them apart because of the darker color of this ant. Colonies are large and have multiple queens.
Nests and Habits Location and habits resemble the Argentine ant. Their nests are located in a wide variety of locations both indoors and out. Outside they are usually shallow and underneath a board or stone. Indoors they are usually in walls and underneath floors. This ant prefers sweet foods such as sugars, syrup, fruit juices, secretions of plants and especially honeydew from aphids, scale insects and other insects. They forage for food along regular paths extending out from the nest just like the Argentine ant. They will move indoors late in the year when honeydew is less abundant.
Control - the best control for ants are baits and there are several to choose from. Maxforce and Niban granular baits are very good baits for ants and other insects, Advance Dual Choice Ant Bait Stations, Gourmet Ant Gel Bait, and Drax Dual Ant Bait Syringe are excellent for ants indoors. Another great choice is Termidor, a newer chemical that works differently. It is applied outside along the foundation and around any other entry point such as doors, windows, vents, pipes, and especially the joint where any siding meets the foundation and the ants walk right on through it because it is non repellent so they do not even know it is there. It gets on them and they take it back to the colony where it gets shared through grooming and contact, thus wiping out the colony. Liquid residual type insecticides and aerosols will also kill ants indoors and out but are usually only a quick fix. You seldom get the colony so the problem usually comes back. But these are good to have when you need that quick kill for instant relief. Some good choices are Onslaught, Talstar Pro, Demand CS, Suspend SC, Demon WP, and Cynoff WP. Some good aerosol choices are PT Cy-Kick, PT 221L, CB Intruder, CB Invader, CB D-Force HPX, and EcoPCO AR-X. All are excellent with long residual activity and should work for weeks depending on conditions such as rainfall, temperature, etc. Always remember to read all chemical labeling before using.
Geographic Location(s): Found nationwide.
Some online retail products cannot be shipped to all states, most notably
are New York, California, Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont, and Connecticut.
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