Small black ants multiply quickly and expand their nests.
Black ants are a nuisance when crawling all over your yard. If you want to have a picnic or watch your children play in the grass, an ant infestation quickly thwarts such plans. The little black ants are most likely skimming your yard in search of food, but they must be controlled to prevent an expansion of their colony. Does this Spark an idea?
Monomorium Minimum
The proper name for the little black ants is monomorium minimum. They are also known as "Buckley" and some people call them "sugar ants." They are native to the United States and are mainly found in Southern California and the eastern half of the United States. They live in colonies that are made up of one or more winged queens and up to 2,000 workers. The queen ants can live up to a year while the workers live up to four months. The ants produce "swarmers," or winged ants, from June to August in order to mate and form new colonies.
Ant Characteristics
The ants are black or brown in color. The worker ants measure as small as 1 millimeter and the queens measure about 1/8 of an inch. They have small, rounded bodies, antennas and a small stinger. Queen ants and male ants have wings. After mating, the male ants die while the queen ants simply loose their wings.
Ant Infestations
If black ants have formed one or more colonies around your yard, you may begin to see a large infestation of them. The ants reproduce and build new colonies quickly, building nests in woodwork openings, walls, rotted wood, cracks in cement and in the soil of an open lawn. The ants create trails through the grass, making walkways between the nests and food sources. You may see them frequenting your garden beds because they eat the honeydew that aphids, scales and mealybugs produce when eating plants. The ants you see in your yard are searching for this honeydew or other foods to eat, such as insects, human foods or plant secretions. You may notice swarms of the ants around your lawn from June to August when they are mating.
Ant Control
As soon as you notice the ants, seal all exterior walls and cracks, and remove rotted wood, firewood and other debris from your lawn. Locate the colonies by following the trail of workers. Drench the colonies with a residual insecticide to kill the ants. Set ant bait near their source of food, along their trails or near the colonies. Once treated, continue to monitor your yard for new invasions. Treat them as they occur.
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