Maryland, Delaware, Washington, DC and Virginia are primarily home to four major varieties of ant: the carpenter ant, the pavement ant, the odorous house ant, and the fire ant.
Carpenter ants are the big black ants that seem to never go away no matter how many times you spray them. They are common in the Mid-Atlantic States, and can cause damage to your building’s wooden structure in much the same way as termites. In fact, they are often mistaken for termites. The best way to differentiate these ants from termites is that termites are much smaller than carpenter ants. Carpenter ants are some of the most difficult variety of ants to control when an infestation occurs, since a carpenter ant colony consists of a central colony and numerous satellite colonies, so that finding the main colony is very difficult.
Pavement ants can look a lot like carpenter ants, due to their similar coloration. However, they are much smaller, and are probably what you think of when you think of “common ants.” These are the ants that you can find throughout the entire United States, ruining picnics and even finding food that has been left out indoors. They are generally harmless, and this combined with how difficult it is to locate nests results in pavement ant control generally focusing on the individual groups in a home rather than total colony destruction.
The odorous house ant, also known as the stink ant, is a native species to the United States, and give off a foul odor when crushed. Standard ant control products usually do the trick with this variety of ants, though it is recommended to examine the house for cracks and caulk possible entry points.
Everyone knows what a fire ant looks like. Their distinctive red color identifies them immediately to all who see them and convey one important message: “Be careful, I sting.” There are two varieties in the DC area: native and imported. The imported variety is classified as an invasive species, and is much more aggressive. This variety can be differentiated by its numerous above ground “ant hills” in an area as well as the workers being of a darker red color than the native species. Due to their aggressive nature, fire ant control is best left to professionals.
If you have an ant infestation, call Connor’s today and we’ll help remove these pests out of your home.
This entry was posted on Friday, August 26th, 2011 at 3:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
