⭐ Features

Carpenter ants are known for their ability to excavate wood to create intricate nesting galleries, which distinguishes them from termites as they do not eat the wood but remove it to build their nests. They communicate using pheromones and can deploy formic acid as a defense mechanism. Carpenter ants have a well-organized social structure with distinct roles for workers, soldiers, and reproductive individuals. They are also nocturnal foragers, often traveling long distances from their nests to find food, and can establish satellite colonies connected to a main nest.

📍 Habitat

Carpenter ants are commonly found in moist, decaying, or hollow wood both outdoors and indoors. Outdoors, they nest in tree stumps, logs, firewood piles, and wooden structures like fences or decks. Indoors, they are often found in wall voids, window and door frames, crawl spaces, attics, and areas with water damage such as around sinks, bathtubs, and dishwashers. They are attracted to wood softened by moisture.

⭐ Features

Pavement ants are known for their distinctive behavior of creating small mounds of soil between pavement cracks. They exhibit complex social organization, including cooperative foraging and food sharing through trophallaxis. Pavement ants are also notable for their aggressive territorial battles with neighboring colonies, often resulting in large ant skirmishes on sidewalks. They have a diverse diet, feeding on seeds, honeydew, insects, and human food scraps, and are skilled at quickly recruiting nestmates to food sources using pheromone trails.

📍 Habitat

Pavement ants are most commonly found in urban and suburban areas, especially around sidewalks, driveways, patios, building foundations, and cracks in pavement. They often nest under concrete slabs, stones, bricks, and along the edges of buildings. Indoors, they may be found in basements, along baseboards, and near heat sources.

⭐ Features

Odorous house ants emit a distinctive rotten coconut-like smell when crushed, which is their most notable feature. They are highly adaptable in their nesting habits, often relocating their colonies in response to disturbances. These ants form large, multi-queen colonies, allowing for rapid population growth and resilience. They prefer sweet foods and are known for creating well-defined foraging trails. Their ability to survive both indoors and outdoors, along with their tendency to invade homes in search of food, makes them persistent household pests.

📍 Habitat

Odorous house ants are most commonly found in kitchens, bathrooms, and areas with moisture such as under sinks, around leaky pipes, and near water heaters. Outdoors, they nest under rocks, mulch, logs, and in soil near foundations. They often enter homes in search of food, especially sweets, and can be found trailing along baseboards, countertops, and inside wall voids.

⭐  Features

Pharaoh ants are notable for their complex social structure, including multiple queens within a single colony, which allows for rapid colony expansion and resilience. They practice "budding," where groups of workers and queens split off to form new colonies, making them difficult to control. Pharaoh ants communicate using pheromones to coordinate foraging and nesting. They are also known for their ability to nest in hidden, inaccessible locations and for their preference for feeding on a wide variety of foods, including sweets, proteins, and fats.

📍 Habitat

Pharaoh ants are commonly found in warm, humid indoor environments. Typical areas include kitchens, bathrooms, hospitals, food storage areas, wall voids, behind baseboards, under floors, and inside electrical outlets. They are attracted to food and water sources and often nest near sinks, pipes, and appliances.