Pavement Ants

An ant is an ant, so you say. Fact of the matter is that every species of ant acts different from others, eats different foods and may live in places unlike other ants. So, before you rush to your local supermarket and pick out the pesticides with the most appealing advertising, find out what kind of ant you are dealing with.

Let's look at pavement ants, for example. These are the tiny ants we usually see building little dirt piles on our sidewalks and in between paver stones. They are so common we hardly give them any thought, that is, until they decide to come into our houses. Then, it's pretty important to know that they are searching for certain types of foods that contain grease like that

Jimmy Dean Sausage you had for breakfast, or sweets like that cheesecake you brought home from the Cheesecake Factory, or seeds and dead insects. Probably want to pull out the stove and clean off years of built up Wesson oil from the sides of the oven and side cabinetry.

You might also need to know that these ants like to build nests around any concrete object like curbs, patios and between expansion joints in driveways. Look in landscape beds and under mulch because pavement ants feed on the honeydew produced by aphids and are an occasional pest of vegetable gardens.

Inside your house pavement ants are active foragers setting up trails along baseboards, beneath carpet edges, under toilets and other areas. Worker ants often move to different rooms and floors via plumbing that provide entry points, moisture source and heat in cold seasons.

Okay! So now you are armed with just enough information to do a search and destroy mission. Go get ‘em, Champ and leave no stone unturned. Call your local pest control professional if you get too frustrated.

Click here to watch my short video on how to control ants.