Odorous House

Odorous house ants have large colonies that can feature more than one queen and upwards of 10,000 workers. Colonies are built outside, typically in shallow nests under rocks, lags and other debris. The colonies tend to grow until natural resources have been depleted and then the ants take advantage of shrubs and trees that touch homes as ways to enter a structure. They will look for cracks within the walls, especially in places like windows and pipes as ways to gain entrance into the home. Once inside, the ants create nests in wall voids, window frames, and attic insulation.

Odorous house ants have a dark brown or black appearance, about an eighth of an inch long with a 12 segmented clubbed antennae and with also one node on its petiole (waist). Why these ants are referred to as “odorous house ants” is from the rotten coconut smell that emits when an ant is crushed. This odor is a pheromone to help warn other house ants that there is danger in the area. Although the ants normally will travel from colony to food source in an orderly line, once that alarm has gone up, the ants will move sporadically to disperse from the area, and even go as far as to form multiple new colonies elsewhere.

Odorous house ants love to feed on sweets, although they will eat more protein as it gets closer to the winter months. When outside, odorous house ants will feed on the honeydew created by other insects on trees and plants (such as scale insects and aphids), and inside they prefer fruits, sweets such as candy, and pastries, and fruit juices.