Share |

Large and Little Black Sugar Ants pest control service in Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah, Redmond, Samammish, Mercer island, Medina, Woodinville & Eastside, WA

The biggest difficulty we face with little black sugar ants control is that they are such versatile things. They will nest in almost anything. Outside they will be in the ground in trees, in mulch, in cracks in sidewalks and driveways, in rotted wood, under rocks, etc. Inside, little and large black ants will nest in woodwork, masonry, wall voids, and even under carpets. They eat everything. Sweets, vegetables, fruits, meats, dead insects, plant secretions, and grease. They'll even eat honeydew, which is a secretion given off by plant suckers like aphids and scales.

Household ant pictures identification and description,Learn facts about ants and how they invade your home and buildings. 


 Carpenter AntsCarpenter Ants

Carpenter ants reside both outdoors and indoors in moist, decaying or hollow wood. They carve "galleries" into the wood grain to provide passageways for movement from section to section of the nest. They leave what looks like sawdust behind which provides an indication to where they are nesting.


 Moisture Ants  



 Odorous House Ants

Odorous house ants (Sugar Ants) can be very annoying as they frequently establish trails in your house along kitchen counters, cabinets, sinks, and baseboards in their search for food. They can also be difficult to eradicate, since there can be several (or many) queens in several locations, the workers can all trail together regardless of their home colonies, and the colonies frequently move from place to place, both inside and outside


Pavement Ants        

Sidewalk ants, or pavement ants, are familiar to everyone. They are commonly seen during summer months on driveways, patio slabs, and walkways. They will sometimes be seen pushing piles of sand and other debris from cracks and from along slab edges. There are many different species, of different size and appearance.


Thatch Ants             

Thatch ants are a large black ants sometimes confused with carpenter ants. They have a distinctive red head, which carpenter ants do not. Primarily an outside ant, they will occasionally invade structures. Most species of thatching ants are bicolored red and black .A few are all black. They are medium to large ants, averaging from 4–8 mm (3/16–5/16 inch) long, with a notch or depression on the top of the thorax when viewed from the side. They are polymorphic, that is, the workers vary in size within the same colony. Their reproductive swarms (winged males and queens leaving the colony) occur in late summer to early fall.


Pharaoh ant              

Pharaoh ant infests almost all areas of a building where food is available and infests many areas where food is not commonly found. Pharaoh ants have a wide preference in the types of food consumed. In infested areas, if sweet, fatty, or oily foods are left uncovered for only a short period of time, one can likely find a trail of Pharaoh ants to the food. As a consequence, they cause much food to be discarded due to contamination. Also called, and miscalled, sugar ants, grease ants, kitchen ants, and house ants.


Harvester ant            

The harvester ant behavior differs between each species, seen through their feeding and nesting habits. In addition, unlike many other little black ants that infest indoor structures, all species of harvester ants prefer not to invade houses and buildings, but will establish their nests around gardens or yards, often destroying vegetation.



Velvety tree ants      

Velvety tree ants make their nest in the crooks of trees. Depending on the location, they nest in oaks, sycamores, cottonwoods, and pines. They also nest in the soil under rocks and inside logs or stumps. Colonies are usually very large. Normally the entire colony nests in the same place. However, sometimes there are satellite colonies and the workers move back and forth between the nests.

Velvety tree ants eat honeydew, nectar, and insects. They tend small insects, like aphids, because they produce honeydew. It is common to see velvety tree ant workers moving around in lines or trails on the trunks of trees. They often use tree limbs and branches to enter homes and other structures.

When they move indoors, velvety tree ants often make their nests inside wall voids. The workers often build paper-like nests inside the wall voids. They also hollow out sheetrock and foam insulation for nesting and passages. If they find damp, decaying wood, they hollow it out to nest inside.

Crushing a velvety tree ant worker, it releases an unpleasant odor. The workers also give off that odor if the colony is disturbed. The workers do not sting, but they bite if the nest is disturbed.

Parts of House Likely to be attacked by Little and Large Black Ants

Outside walls and voids
Crawl space 
interior walls, roof, sill plate
Porch pillars
Support timbers
Window framing and sills
Drawers of dressers and cabinets
Behind books
In hollow doors
Under floors 
Buried wood, stumps or construction debris
Nest Location Outside Structures 
Live trees excavate heartwood; enter by knotholes, wounds, etc. 
Dead trees, stumps or logs, buried wood
Wood debris
Decorative wood in landscape
Stacked lumber 

Pest Control Home | Pest Control Services | Free Estimate | Pest Control Tips | Contact Us
© 2014 - AM/PM Exterminators, LLC

3213 W Wheeler St,
Suite 81,
Seattle, WA 98199

Follow AM / PM Exterminators on Twitter