Identifying ants can be difficult due to their small size, according to Chad Gore, PhD, entomologist and market technical director for Terminix. But it’s crucial if you want to successfully ant-proof your home.
“To properly identify them often requires some level of magnification where you have to look at features on the exoskeleton, such as grooves, the number of segments in the antennae, and the number of nodes (like bumps on the waist) on the segment between the thorax and abdomen,” Gore says. “Some ants, like Pennsylvania carpenter ants, tend to be very large and black, which makes them fairly easy to recognize. There’s also some that, when squashed between fingers, have a very distinct odor. [Editor’s note: Leave this one for the experts to do.]
Just remember that all ants have elbowed antennae, a constricted waist, and either one or two nodes on that constriction. Also, when you see the reproductives with wings, they have two pairs with the hindwings shorter than the forewings. Proper identification of the ants that plague is very important. Not all ants are treated the same way from a control perspective. It’s best to get professional advice on your ant ID.”
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a science-based strategy to prevent ant invasions and handle ant problems without spraying harmful pesticides—and identifying the ant type in and around your home is the first step toward modifying your habitat and removing food sources that draw them into your living space. CR senior scientist Michael Hansen, PhD, a biologist and ecologist who wrote his doctoral thesis on integrated pest management, says different ant species crave different foods. For example, Argentine ants, which are found in southern states, California, and Hawaii, seek sweet foods and sometimes proteins and make their homes outdoors in shallow mounds.
But Carpenter ants, found throughout the U.S. and most common in the North, prefer sweets and nest in places like tree stumps and firewood, which means wood stored close to your home for your fireplace could be as much a culprit for their entry as sweet foods you’ve left out on the counter too long. If your sole solution is to run to the store and purchase a “sweet” tasting bait, you may or may not solve your ant problem, depending on the type of ants in your home and their specific cravings. “You have to know their biology to know what actions to take,” Hansen says.
