Ant ID help please... Pharaoh ant?

[Bruce Musgrove]

Loading Image...
Loading Image...
Loading Image...
Loading Image... - this one is closer to the
true color


The colors on these came out darker in the picture.
Reddish brown with a dark brown or black abdomen, 2 nodes, end of abdomen
seems to be a striated pattern.
Ants gather under things we leave on floor and ant trails seem to follow
baseboards and carpet edges.
Have seen the same ant under the window sills and in the ventilation / weep
holes of the bricks on the outside of the house. Where I have seen them
under the windows sill and outside in the weep holes, there is a lot of fine
grayish looking "frass" but I tore the windows sill apart and there are no
galleries / tunnels in the wood, just a frass that looked like fine dirt
The seem to ignore most of the over the counter baits at Home Depot /
Wal-mart (such as Raid Double Control and Combat bait stations, combat
gel). They do love Amdro Fire Ant bait (seen in pictures). ZEP ant bait
(before they quit selling it ) also worked good. Ants are not aggressive and
when disturbed (like with a pen) run around like nut cases with their pants
on fire. I say not aggressive because they will avoid anything you put in
their path, even fingers! :)


Seems to be 2 sizes. A lot of smaller ones about 1 mm across, and
intermittently a bigger one a little bit longer than the width of the curved
end of a bobby pin. The smaller one will fit inside the curved end of the
bobby pin, taking up abut 90% of the width

http://home.comcast.net/~katkom01/ant1.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~katkom01/ant2.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~katkom01/ant202.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~katkom01/ant201.jpg - this one is closer to the
true color

[Lar]

Post by Bruce Musgrove
The colors on these came out darker in the picture.
Reddish brown with a dark brown or black abdomen, 2 nodes, end of abdomen
seems to be a striated pattern.

I am wondering if it is one of the smaller varieties of acrobat ants.
The types of acrobats usually seen have some size to them, but I have
come across some very small members of this family.
http://tinyurl.com/vdy74 <---- acrobat ant pic

Post by Bruce Musgrove
Ants gather under things we leave on floor and ant trails seem to follow
baseboards and carpet edges.
Have seen the same ant under the window sills and in the ventilation / weep
holes of the bricks on the outside of the house. Where I have seen them
under the windows sill and outside in the weep holes, there is a lot of fine
grayish looking "frass" but I tore the windows sill apart and there are no
galleries / tunnels in the wood, just a frass that looked like fine dirt

I have never seen frass associated with Pharaohs, but it is common with
Acrobat ants...the frass, even with most carpenter ant species is mainly
made up of a shed "cocoon" from their pupa stage, it looks like wood
shavings but normally no tunnels in the wood will be found. Also I
rarely find Pharaohs on the exterior of the home and the few times I
have they were under potted plants trailing back into the home.

Post by Bruce Musgrove
The seem to ignore most of the over the counter baits at Home Depot /
Wal-mart (such as Raid Double Control and Combat bait stations, combat
gel). They do love Amdro Fire Ant bait (seen in pictures). ZEP ant bait
(before they quit selling it ) also worked good. Ants are not aggressive and
when disturbed (like with a pen) run around like nut cases with their pants
on fire. I say not aggressive because they will avoid anything you put in
their path, even fingers! :)

Ants never do play fair..if you find a bait they will feed on you should
get some control over them.

[Bruce Musgrove]

My ant color is more red or reddish orange to me , although your picture it
could just bea flash induced color variation. I have seen [ictures of
Acrobat with the same color as my infestation. I am going to have to get
a magnifyer and specimen container fora really close look

Acrobats were my second choice but it looks like the waist (petiole?) on my
ants attach straight at the center of the abdomen, instead of at a downward
angle to the top of the abdomen. Plus I did not see the heart shape typical
of the Acrobat. That's why I guessed Pharoah.

I am going to dig out my sons insect kit tonight and capture some of them in
a small plastic dish to view under a microsocope.

Post by Bruce Musgrove
The colors on these came out darker in the picture.
Reddish brown with a dark brown or black abdomen, 2 nodes, end of abdomen
seems to be a striated pattern.

I am wondering if it is one of the smaller varieties of acrobat ants. The
types of acrobats usually seen have some size to them, but I have come
across some very small members of this family.
http://tinyurl.com/vdy74 <---- acrobat ant pic

Post by Bruce Musgrove
Ants gather under things we leave on floor and ant trails seem to follow
baseboards and carpet edges.
Have seen the same ant under the window sills and in the ventilation /
weep holes of the bricks on the outside of the house. Where I have seen
them under the windows sill and outside in the weep holes, there is a lot
of fine grayish looking "frass" but I tore the windows sill apart and
there are no galleries / tunnels in the wood, just a frass that looked
like fine dirt

I have never seen frass associated with Pharaohs, but it is common with
Acrobat ants...the frass, even with most carpenter ant species is mainly
made up of a shed "cocoon" from their pupa stage, it looks like wood
shavings but normally no tunnels in the wood will be found. Also I rarely
find Pharaohs on the exterior of the home and the few times I have they
were under potted plants trailing back into the home.

Post by Bruce Musgrove
The seem to ignore most of the over the counter baits at Home Depot /
Wal-mart (such as Raid Double Control and Combat bait stations, combat
gel). They do love Amdro Fire Ant bait (seen in pictures). ZEP ant bait
(before they quit selling it ) also worked good. Ants are not aggressive
and when disturbed (like with a pen) run around like nut cases with their
pants on fire. I say not aggressive because they will avoid anything you
put in their path, even fingers! :)

Ants never do play fair..if you find a bait they will feed on you should
get some control over them.

[v***@gmail.com]

They are not Acrobat Ants, as the distinctive "heart" shaped abdomen is
missing.

Loading Image...

Loading Image...&imgrefurl=http://www.tightloop.com/ants/showgenus.php%3Fgenus_id%3D13&h=142&w=150&sz=57&hl=en&start=27&tbnid=tIEj3CBpZ17TaM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=96&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dacrobat%2Bant%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

They look more like a Red Imported Fire Ant to me.

Loading Image...

[Bruce Musgrove]

My only issue with a fire ant ID si taht these are not agressive. Set
anything in there way and they just try to find a way around it. Take a
pensil and stir it around in a bunch of you find hiding under a object and
they just run around in circles , but do not attack it as a fire ant does if
you stick it in their mound.

It does look like a imported fire ant, but there is just no agressiveness.

Anything put in their way wilol casue them to

Post by v***@gmail.com
They are not Acrobat Ants, as the distinctive "heart" shaped abdomen is
missing.
http://fireant.tamu.edu/img/ants/img0103_med.jpg
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.tightloop.com/ants/images/creari/CRW_2177T.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.tightloop.com/ants/showgenus.php%3Fgenus_id%3D13&h=142&w=150&sz=57&hl=en&start=27&tbnid=tIEj3CBpZ17TaM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=96&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dacrobat%2Bant%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN
They look more like a Red Imported Fire Ant to me.
http://www.mdinvasivesp.org/species/insects/graphics/Red_Imported_Fire_Ant_1.jpg

[Lar]

Post by Bruce Musgrove
My ant color is more red or reddish orange to me , although your picture it
could just bea flash induced color variation. I have seen [ictures of
Acrobat with the same color as my infestation. I am going to have to get
a magnifyer and specimen container fora really close look
Acrobats were my second choice but it looks like the waist (petiole?) on my
ants attach straight at the center of the abdomen, instead of at a downward
angle to the top of the abdomen. Plus I did not see the heart shape typical
of the Acrobat. That's why I guessed Pharoah.
I am going to dig out my sons insect kit tonight and capture some of them in
a small plastic dish to view under a microsocope.

your ant201 pic is what reminded me of a small species of Acr. ants, but
as you mention the petiole connects at the top of the abdomen. Jeff
mentioned IFA, but they just don't have the look to me, but it might be
one of the native species of fire ants, for the habits you are
describing and what they are feeding on does describe fire ant.

[r***@yahoo.com]

They aren't acrobat ants as the shape of the abdomen isn't right and
there are no visible spikes on the thorax just in front of the petiole.
I suspect Monomorium minimum but can't be sure. Fire ants have a
two-segmented antennal club while all Monomorium (including the pharaoh
ants) have a three-segmented antennal club.

You can send me some if you like and I will give you a postiive ID.
You can go to my webpage for information on sending bugs for
identification.

Richard "Bugman" Fagerlund

[r***@yahoo.com]

They aren't acrobat ants as the shape of the abdomen isn't right and
there are no visible spikes on the thorax just in front of the petiole.
I suspect Monomorium minimum but can't be sure. Fire ants have a
two-segmented antennal club while all Monomorium (including the pharaoh
ants) have a three-segmented antennal club.

You can send me some if you like and I will give you a postiive ID.
You can go to my webpage for information on sending bugs for
identification.

Richard "Bugman" Fagerlund

[r***@yahoo.com]

Sorry, my webpage is www.askthebugman.com

Post by r***@yahoo.com
They aren't acrobat ants as the shape of the abdomen isn't right and
there are no visible spikes on the thorax just in front of the petiole.
I suspect Monomorium minimum but can't be sure. Fire ants have a
two-segmented antennal club while all Monomorium (including the pharaoh
ants) have a three-segmented antennal club.
You can send me some if you like and I will give you a postiive ID.
You can go to my webpage for information on sending bugs for
identification.
Richard "Bugman" Fagerlund

[m***@gmail.com]

The pharaoh ant (Monomorium pharaonis), so titled out of a belief that it may have been one of the ectozoon plagues of Ancient Egypt,[1] is a minuscule (2 mm) xanthous or shallow chromatic, virtually transparent ant notorious for state a educatee indoor nuisance gadfly, especially in hospitals[notation required]. The pharaoh ant - See more at: http://www.soufhd.com/2013/06/pharaoh-ant.html#sthash.pPbpqDjI.dpuf