Keeping ants out of your premises may seem impossible, especially if they’re part of a colony, where a queen can lay up to 1,500 eggs a day.
Even worse, they can transfer bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella, and Shigella as they frequently crawl over garbage, drains, and rotting organic matter. So ants are a safety and audit problem for any enterprise in the food, healthcare or hospitality sectors.
If you’re a commercial operator in NY, NJ or CT, then this guide will help you identify ant types, so you can decide on how severe the issue is and what the root cause is. If you have already got ants and you need help, just jump straight to our commercial ant control services. If not, then read on about their habitat, diet, lifecycle, and the dangers they can bring.
As well as the common species below, others include pavement ants, pharaoh ants (very small, light tan), pavement ants (brown or black with pale legs, small), odorous ants (brown or black, very smelly), and red imported fire ants (red, with larger than usual queens).
Size: ¼ -1/2 inch (3.5-13mm).
Color: Black. Sometimes yellowish or reddish.
Characteristics: Burrows in damp, decaying wood.
Size: 3/16 inch (2-5mm).
Color: Red, copper or brown with darker head.
Characteristics: Tiny. Two nodes at waist with backward spines. Most fire ants are found in the south. The European Fire Ant is a hardier version found with greater frequency in New England.
Size: workers 1/8 inch (2-3mm), queens 1/5 inch (4-5mm).
Color: Black.
Characteristics: Common variety. They follow trails between nests, food and water.
Size: varies but larger than non-winged ants. Up to about ½ inch.
Color: Varies by species. Black, red, brown.
Characteristics: Flying ants are not a species of ant. All ant species produce fliers. They are the “alates” or queens and males whose sole purpose is reproduction. Often seen in mating swarms on warm humid days.
In food environments, ants are architectural opportunists: they establish colonies in wall voids, under floor slabs, or within the insulation of climate-controlled rooms. They thrive in the "hidden anatomy" of your facility, using utility conduits and structural gaps as protected highways to reach water and food sources.
In the wild, ants usually eat dead insects, dead animals, plants and pest species. They’re also like sweets, grease, fats, cake, fruit juice, syrups, eggs, sugar, honey, meat and pet food. Adult ants can’t eat solid foods, but larvae can process solids into liquids which they regurgitate into the “social stomach” so the adult ants can feed when necessary.
Ants’ life cycles are linked to their three distinct castes: workers, queens and males. Queens live the longest, 1 to 30 years, and the colony will survive through her lifetime. The workers will generally live 1 to 3 years, while the males sometimes only have a few weeks.
Most ants mate in swarms, usually in the warmer months of the year, when winged males, then winged reproductive females leave their colony’s nest and go out to mate. The females follow a pheromone emitted by the male.
Ants have incredible strength with strong jaws, called mandibles, which help carry food, defend, and manipulate or move objects for survival or social needs. Every ant also has six legs with hooked claws for hanging or climbing.
The most common signs of an ant infestation is... seeing live ants. They also leave behind visible ant pathways and nests that look like small piles of soil, garbage, or dirt.
Prevention is the best way to get rid of ants. Stop them entering your building (or your office) in the first place, by preventing ants from accessing the things that attract them:
This is especially important for food service and food retail businesses.
If ants are in your building, follow them back to their nest. Try to destroy the nest and the entire colony, including the queen. Most ant colonies form outside of buildings, even if the ants themselves venture inside for food and shelter.
If ants keep coming back, contact the experts at Assured Environments. We offer professional ant control in NYC and beyond.
Ants are usually attracted by food and water inside buildings. So understanding the scale of your issue early on is the best way to protect your business and avoid expensive treatments later on.
Find out how our technicians deal with problem ants:
Carpenter ants, European fire ants, little black ants, flying ants, pavement ants, and odorous house ants are all common in the Tri-State area.
Carpenter ants are a threat to wooden buildings as they tunnel into structural wood to build nests. Unlike termites that eat wood, these ants hollow it out, which can cause long-term structural damage if left untreated.
Warmer spring temperatures and heavy rains often drive ants indoors in search of food and dry shelter and food. They are attracted to sugary spills, crumbs, and moisture around pipes and sinks.
No, these are "swarmers," which are the reproductive members of an existing colony. If you see them indoors then chances are you have an infestation nest inside your structure.
Inside: clear food debris, seal stored food, fix leaky faucets, seal cracks and gaps around the buildings, windows and doors. Outside: trim tree branches so they don't touch the building; reduce or remove any water near your building’s perimeter.
No. Having a few ants is usually a minor violation. It’s serious if ants are widespread or on food or preparation surfaces. At Assured Environments we can eliminate any pests, prevent them from coming back and provide detailed treatment documentation to prove your compliance with all relevant health codes during inspections.
Look for fine sawdust-like debris (frass) near walls or wood: a sign of carpenter ants that eat wood. Listen for a hollow sound when you tap on wood: this indicates their hidden "galleries" or tunnels. Assured Environments can identify the type of ant you have, eliminate them and help you prevent them from returning.
Yes. Species like crazy ants frequently do as they’re attracted to the electromagnetic fields or warmth emitted by wiring. Ants can cause short circuits by chewing through insulation. A pheromone released by an electrocuted ant will attract more ants. Accumulated dead ants can bridge gaps in circuits, causing mechanical clogs and costly repairs for IT and HVAC systems.
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