When a customer calls about ants, my priority is to identify what type of ant it is. There are several different types of ants that a homeowner may see. Pavement ants are one of the most common types of ants seen in the Twin Cities and are commonly referred to as “Sugar Ants”. They are the little ants that push up the sand piles in between the sidewalk cracks. They can be reddish-brown to black.

“Scott takes the time to explain and does a great job with the service. He will exceed your expectations with his service.”
-Kevin in Plymouth

Did you know that their colony has several queens and as many as 5,000 to 8,000 members? Only about 10% of them come up to find food and water for the 90% that stay in the nest site.

If you see these ants (or any type of ants) during the winter months, you have a nest site inside your home. Pavement ants get their name from the area they prefer to nest, under pavement slabs. If your home has heated floors, or if your heat registers are on the floor, that can keep the environment warm enough to be awake when it is so cold outside.

Other types of small black ants look very similar to the pavement ant. This is how to identify them properly. Ants have a body made up of 3 segments; (head, thorax, and abdomen). Use a magnifying glass to look in between the abdomen and the thorax. You should see two small bumps called “nodes” if it is a pavement ant.

One more interesting tidbit about ants is, that the adults do not eat solid food. They carry it back to the nest and hand it over to the larvae, so they can chew the solid into a liquid. The larvae then pass the liquid back to the adult. The adult distributes the food, mouth to mouth to each member through a process called, “trophallaxis”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcUOMR_5kQ8