How Many Types of Ants are in Minnesota?
There are over 100 different species of ants in Minnesota, and the last place you would ever want to find them is in your house. Luckily, there are only a few types of ants you can find in or around your home. While finding any type of ant inside your house may be unsettling, identifying the specific type of ant is crucial for effective pest control. Our experts have provided this ant identification guide, with the four most common ants our pest technicians find in homes across the Minneapolis and St. Paul area.
How do I know what kind of ants are in my house?
The four most common ant pests you could encounter in your home are pavement ants, carpenter ants, field ants, and odorous house ants. Below we have segmented out these four different ants and how to identify them based on size, location, behavior, and other key identifiers.
Pavement Ants
- Small (around 3 mm)
- Brown or black in color
- Small sandy round piles between pavers or in cracks of driveway
Carpenter Ants
- Big (3/8 inch to ½ inch long)
- Black or red and black in color
- Nests consist of parent nests (in dead wood of trees) and satellite nests (damp areas of your home)
Field Ants
- Big (1/8 inch to ¼ inch long)
- Brown, black, or red in color
- Nest consists of large (10 inches to multiple feet across) mounds of black dirt
Odorous House Ants
- Small (about 1/10 inch)
- Black or brown in color
- Strong odor when crushed (compared to rotten coconut)
How did ants get in my house?
Now that you have identified the type of ant in your home, you can better address the issue at hand. The ants you see inside your home are most likely workers scouting for food. A good step in preventing ant problems in the first place is by storing all of your food in air-tight containers. Once worker ants find a food source, other ants will follow close behind by using the previous ant’s trail.
The food source they prefer can differ based on the species, colony, and time of year. This is why our technicians use a combination of baits along with a perimeter treatment around the foundation of your house for our ant treatment service. Learn more about our ant control service.
Removing ants from my home
While there are hundreds native to Minnesota, these four are the ones you will most likely encounter. Finding ants in your house can be quite unsettling, but it is a common occurrence that can usually be handled quickly. Being able to identify these common ants in your home can give you a head start at getting them out.
Need help eliminating ants? Our experts can get rid of them and keep them from returning!
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