Ways to Eliminate Pavement Ants

Madelyn Goodnight

Among the over 12,000 ant species, only a select few can create issues for homeowners, and pavement ants (Tetramorium) are generally not considered particularly damaging or dangerous. Nevertheless, if this small ant chooses to create a colony inside your home, it can become a bothersome problem that requires your attention.

Pavement ants are relatively small, measuring between 1/10 and 1/6 inch in length, and are prevalent across all 50 states in the U.S. These ants are typically brownish-black and feature lighter-colored legs. When observed under a magnifying glass or microscope, one can notice two spines located between their body segments and a fine layer of stiff hairs that cover their bodies.

Outdoor colonies typically pose no significant issues. Pavement ants often establish themselves in the crevices of sidewalks. However, it’s quite common to find them scurrying across your kitchen floor in pursuit of grease, traversing your picnic blanket, or being drawn to the aroma of barbecue on your patio.

Here’s essential information regarding pavement ants and effective methods to eliminate them from your home.

Three Methods to Eliminate Pavement Ants

Maintain a Pristine Home

Ants will vacate your residence when there is a lack of food sources. Specifically for pavement ants, getting rid of meat and greasy remnants from surfaces, countertops, and trash areas will typically eliminate their motivation for entering your home.

Just a tiny drop of bacon grease on the kitchen floor can offer pavement ants a delightful meal, making it essential to clean all surfaces daily to keep these ants at bay in your home.

Utilize Ant Traps

Regardless of whether the ant colony is located outside or concealed within your home, using bait is typically the most efficient approach. By setting up bait stations along the ant trails you’ve noticed, the worker ants will discover the bait and transport it back to their nest, where it will be consumed by the queen or queens.

Baits are capable of eliminating both the queens and the potential future colonies. While there are numerous effective chemical ant baits on the market, you can create a safe, homemade alternative by combining borax with honey or syrup.

Among the various commercial ant baits, those that include methoprene and pyriproxyfen are considered to have a lower toxicity and are relatively safe in comparison to other substances like hydramethylnon, various neonicotinoids, avermectin, fipronil, metaflumizone, and fenoxycarb, several of which are identified as potential carcinogens.

Apply an insecticide spray.

If you manage to follow the ant trail to an outdoor nest located underground, thoroughly soaking the nest with a suitable insecticide spray can effectively reduce the ant population.

Spraying individual pavement ants upon sight is seldom an effective strategy, as it only eliminates the visible workers, while the colony will promptly dispatch more ants to search for food.

What Leads to the Presence of Pavement Ants?

Similar to other ant species, Tetramorium ants can invade residences in significant quantities while searching for food. Their diet includes a wide range of items, including many human foods, as well as some that are not typically consumed by people, like both live and deceased insects. However, these ants have a particular inclination towards meats and fats, and pavement ants are likely to infiltrate any household where these food sources are accessible on surfaces like floors, countertops, or in trash areas.

Ways to Recognize a Colony

Outdoors, a pavement ant colony is recognizable by the small, cone-shaped soil mound that typically crowns the nest. These ants frequently establish their colonies in the gaps of concrete found in driveways, sidewalks, as well as under rocks and logs. They excavate the soil to create a habitat for their colony, pushing the displaced dirt to the surface, which forms the distinctive sandhill-like mounds.

The primary issue posed by these mounds is that ants can erode the underlying support of paved areas. For instance, a patio made of sand can become uneven and sink if ants remove a significant amount of sand from beneath the bricks. Fortunately, adjusting loose pavers is generally a straightforward task.

A standard ant colony usually consists of 3,000 to 5,000 individuals, but some colonies may host up to 30,000 ants. Each colony may have multiple queens, and since the queens are responsible for laying all the eggs, a single pavement colony can have a significant number of young ants.

While pavement ants can be spotted during daylight hours, their peak activity occurs at night. If your property hosts multiple colonies, you might observe the fascinating occurrence of ant skirmishes or their consequences. These colonies engage in territorial disputes, resulting in battles that can leave behind numerous deceased ants.

Ways to Keep Pavement Ants at Bay

To prevent infestations from various ant species, including pavement ants, it is essential to keep food sources tightly sealed and maintain a pristine kitchen. Additionally, sealing any cracks and openings in the siding and foundation can help block ants from entering the house. However, due to the small size of pavement ants, they may still find a way inside unless you uphold a high standard of cleanliness.

Ants and Termites: A Comparison

During the spring and the beginning of summer, clouds of winged pavement ants take to the air to mate and propagate. These flying ants may be mistaken for termites, as both species swarm during this season. However, there are several features that can help differentiate ants from termites:

• Wings: The front wings of the pavement ant are longer than its hind wings, whereas the wings of termites are of the same length.
• Ants possess a slender waist, while termites have a broad waist that gives the appearance of a single, unified body segment.
• Antennae: Ants possess elbowed antennae, while termites have straight ones.

Pavement Ants and Grease Ants: A Comparison

A frequently encountered indoor ant species is the grease ant (Solenopsis), named for its preference for fatty substances found in meat. These ants are quite small, measuring between 1/32 and 1/8 inch in length, and can be identified by their yellow or light brown hue, setting them apart from pavement ants, which are generally a bit larger and are typically dark brown or black in color.

Grease ants present more of a challenge to manage compared to pavement ants, as they generally do not respond to the sugary baits that are effective for other ant species. Nevertheless, a successful method for attracting grease ants involves combining borax with meat grease and strategically placing the mixture along their trails.

What methods do pavement ants use to enter a house?

Small pavement ants can effortlessly invade houses and structures through gaps, around doorways and windows, under siding, and particularly under sliding doors. They establish colonies within walls, woodwork, masonry, insulation, and beneath floors. While they do not damage wood or other construction materials, their presence can become bothersome when they invade a home in significant quantities.

Do pavement ants have the ability to bite or sting?

The pavement ant is not typically aggressive, but it may sting if it feels threatened. While its sting is usually not strong enough to break through human skin, it can lead to allergic reactions or rashes in individuals who are sensitive to its bite.

Do pavement ants transmit or carry any diseases?

Pavement ants, along with other ant species, do not serve as direct vectors for disease-causing pathogens in the same way that mosquitoes or ticks do. However, as ants traverse decaying food, they can transfer foodborne pathogens via their feet. The likelihood of disease transmission through ants is significantly lower compared to that of mice, other rodents, or the typical housefly.

What distinguishes carpenter ants from pavement ants?

Carpenter ants are significantly bigger than pavement ants. Unlike pavement ants, which make their homes in cracks in pavement and among rocks, carpenter ants prefer to nest in wood.