“In nature there is no evil, only an abundance of horror: the plagues and the blights and the ants and the maggots.” -Isak Dinesen
With the recent winter weather here in the Carolinas, ants might not necessarily be right at the top of everyone’s list of concerns…but soon the days will become longer and milder, and ants will begin doing one of the things that they do best – making more ants!
One ant that is a serious concern to homeowners, especially in the Charlotte region, is the odorous house ant. Formally known as Tapinoma sessile, these native ants aren’t picky about where they nest or what they eat – and that can make them a big problem! Odorous house ants are good trailers – that is, when they find a food source they can quickly rally the troops to gather it up. That means one day you can be ant-free, and the next day you might have thousands of ants streaming across your kitchen counter!
One odd aspect of these ants is the characteristic smell they give off when crushed. Most often described as a “rotten coconut” odor, it is a handy tool for quickly identifying the ant. Colonies have several queens, which can complicate efforts to control them. Sometimes upon being disturbed with insecticidal sprays the colonies will fragment or “bud” – which means that a queen or queens may leave with a crew of workers and establish an additional colony elsewhere. When the source of an ant problem in the home cannot be located, we will sometimes ask for the homeowner’s patience as we use bait products to eradicate the hidden colony. Baits are relatively slow acting, which gives the ants time to share the material with their nestmates, resulting in colony kill and lasting control.
Odorous house ants happily consuming a gel bait
In many cases a problem with these ants indoors can be traced to a large colony outdoors. While odorous house ants are perfectly content to nest in loose mulch or debris, there are some areas they are especially fond of. Some areas where I have located large colonies include: under pavers placed on pine straw, between stacked boards and bricks, under statuary, underneath inverted, empty flower pots, between stacked flower pots, and in the folds of tarps and grill covers.
Of course our technicians are armed with state-of-the-art products for controlling these annoying creatures, and the knowledge to locate and treat colonies directly when they can be found. If ants are bugging you, give us a call – we can help!