A few weeks ago, a friend described an annoying invasion of his home by small, dark ants. The ants were everywhere, climbing on the counters, searching in the sink, wandering around the walls. While smugly thinking, better him than me, I described a method of ridding his home of these pesky critters. Upon returning home from a short trip last weekend, I was chagrined to find my home infested by the same sneaky pest, the odorous house ant. The odorous house ant gets its name by virtue of the fact that when you crush one between your fingers or on a counter, it will emit a distinctive smell reminiscent of slightly fermented coconuts. Don't you crush ants on a regular basis? After spending the chilly months of spring in a state of relative inactivity, with the return of warm weather, worker ants conduct an unending search for sugars, proteins, and fats to feed the burgeoning colony. In the wild, these foods come from sucking insects such as aphids and scales, small insects, and plant parts such as nectar and seeds. When ants locate a rich source of food, such as the sugary honeydew produced by a colony of aphids, they establish a trail marked by chemicals called pheromones. The trail leads other workers from the nest to the bounty. Normally, odorous house ants nest beneath a stone or fallen log. I usually have several colonies in my woodpiles. However, they are very opportunistic and will readily enter homes to set up shop. I have discovered colonies in my walls and in a surge protector beneath my desk. Their quest for food brings them into our homes. A few grains of sugar on the counter, a pet dish on the floor, or a leaky bottle of pancake syrup in the pantry, will often initiate a full scale invasion by searching workers. Yesterday, I placed a drop of pancake syrup on my counter and, in no time, a two-directional ant freeway was established from the drop, along the edge of the counter, and down a wall where the trail disappeared into a small crack at the junction of the cabinet and the wall. If you find ants and their telltale trails on your counters or along the baseboards, try to locate the source of food and then follow the trail back to the point of entry into your home. In my home, this is small crack were the cabinet joins the exterior wall. To foil their feeding fun, first eliminate as many sources of food as possible. Clean the counters, mop up drips, and get pet food off the floor. Be sure that no syrup or sweets are spilled or leaking in your cupboards. Ant trails on the counter or floor can be disrupted by spraying them with household cleansers or other solutions. You can buy ant traps or purchase tubes of liquid or gelatin ant baits. Place ant traps or baits at locations indicated on the label. I usually place one near the point of entry to my home and several others around my counters and near their raiding columns. The traps and baits contain a lure that attracts ants searching for sweets or fatty foods. The lure contains poison. Workers carry the toxic treat back to the colony and feed the deadly meal to the queens and their nest mates and, voilà, the royals are assassinated and the colony with them. Be sure that the trap or lure is attracting ants. If you buy any product containing an insecticide, always follow the instructions on the label precisely. Many species of ants enter our homes at different times of the year. Large black ants in the home, especially ones with wings, may be carpenter ants and a sign of a more serious problem. For these, you may want to seek confirmation from your local cooperative extension service or a professional.

I thank Howard Bernstein for providing the inspiration for this bug of the week. For more information on odorous house ants and ants in general, please visit the following web sites.

Bug of the Week Archive