Ants: They Can Live Anywhere, Including Your Home

What’s a picnic without ants?

There’s probably no such thing. Ants are everywhere. And they’ll eat almost anything and everything that’s available.

Ants are among the most adaptable creatures on the face of the earth. They can exist under virtually any condition and they have relative freedom from predators.

Ants are mostly considered a nuisance. But they also do a great deal of damage. They can contaminate food, destroy seeds (both stored and in the ground), and can damage plants. Ants have even been known to attack and injure young poultry, birds, and wildlife. Fire ants, common throughout the southern tier of states, are hostile to humans, and attack with a terrible sting that can cause death in extreme cases.

Carpenter ants do a great deal of structural damage, sometimes even more than termites, although they don’t actually eat wood.

The vast number of ant species can be simply divided into two categories, based on food preferences - sugar lovers and protein lovers. They all live in colonies, which can survive for 30 to 40 years, with a queen who can continue to be fertile for 15 years, and include a wide range of colors such as red, black, yellow or brown.

Specifically, there are approximately 700 species of ants in the United States and Canada, however only about 25 species commonly infest homes. And, in addition to being divided based on their food preference, they can also be categorized based on their nesting preferences, either wall nesting or ground nesting. The most commonly known wall nesting ants are the carpenter ant, crazy ant, pharaoh ant and thief ant. The most commonly encountered ground nesting ants are the Argentine ant, pavement ant, little black ant, velvety ant and fire ant.

Ants eat what humans eat. When one ant enters your home and discovers a droplet of sweet soda or a bread crumb, that ant will communicate that find back to the colony and in due time your home will be infested.

Also, you can forget about killing ants one by one. They will continue to invade your home until you cut of their entry point or destroy their nest. And if you see ants inside during the winter, there’s a pretty good chance that there’s a nest inside the house. (If you see them in your house during the summer and fall, they’re probably entering from the outside in search of food).

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