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[Encyclopędia Britannica - 1911 - public domain]
PAVEMENT ANTS
Tetramorium caepitum
- Pavement ants may be light- to dark-brown or blackish in color
- Workers are between 1/12" to 1/4" long, with twelve-segmented antennae with a three-segmented club, pale legs, and the head and thorax are furrowed with parallel grooves running top to bottom.
- These ants can be an active nuisance year-round, invading buildings through cracks along foundations and walls to forage for food. They are attracted to a wide variety of food and debris, including sweets, sugar, fruits, dry goods, nuts, seeds, cheese, grease residue, meat, live and dead insects, roots, honeydew secreted by aphids, and more.
- Pavement ants nest outdoors under rocks, under sidewalks, along curbs, masonry, or woodwork. The radiant heat from slab-on-grade construction can attract them to homes and businesses even during cold Ohio winters. They can also nest indoors inside walls and under floors.
- Once a queen has mated and burrowed, she begins laying five-to-twenty eggs per day, with worker ants developing through three larval stages to full maturity in two-to-three months. Based on the long development period, by the time a colony is found, the problem may be more widespread than gauged at first notice, and close attention should be paid to tracking the ants because where the main colony is located may not be immediately apparent.
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This page is intended as a quick reference. Pest experts should be contacted for case-by-case evaluation if you believe that you have a pest problem that requires professional assistance.
Some information found in this overview has been compiled from household pest information sheets published by the Ohio State University Extension Office: HYG-2064-96, by the Penn State University Extension Office: Pavement Ant Fact Sheet, and by the National Pest Management Association: Pest Guide. This information is included on this web site strictly to help in the identification of various pests, and no profit is directly derived there from. To read the complete fact sheets, which also include helpful tips on how to avoid attracting these pests, what types of elimination can be handled in the home vs. what types of elimination require the assistance of a professional, visit the respective links.
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