Acrobat Ants
Acrobat Ant
Latin Name: Crematogaster ashmeadi
Features: Medium sized, mostly shiny ant with heart shaped stomach that is sometimes bent up over the thorax when ant is disturbed.
Color: Color variable from light reddish brown to brown or black.
Other: Slow to moderately fast moving ant. May forage in tight foraging trails much in-line with white-footed ant trails, but only acrobat ant bends the abdomen up over the thorax. Acrobat ants also run slower than white-footed ants when disturbed.
Habitat: Acrobat Ants are located in the Southeastern US (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia), but can be seen in parts of Missouri
Like all ants, the acrobat ants may produce winged, reproductive individuals (males and ladies) called swarmers. These sexually developed adults emerge from a founded colony, ordinarily in the fall, to disperse and commence new colonies. The swarmers are harmless, but they might be the first indication of an infestation. Special treatment of swarmers beyond hoovering or sweeping them up is not required.
Outside the home, you will normally find Acrobat ants in an assortment of dead and decaying wood. Firewood seems to be one of their preferred homes. In all cases, the wood they occupy will be dead. The acrobat ant never inhabits a nourishing or live piece of wood, that is why they like some of the woodworkings around your house. They have a nasty trait of creating cavities in timber, in particular when that timber is moist. They will even nest in foam insulation board if weather is right. One way to recognize their intrusion into your timber is to search for sawdust or other frass materials around suspected nest areas.
Several types of small to medium-sized ants are occasional pests around the home. One of these is named the acrobat ant owing to how the worker ants carry their abdomens above the rest of the body as if they were performing a balancing act. Acrobat ants are longer than 1/8th inch. They vary in color from yellowish brown to dark brown, and the heart-shaped stomach is usually darker than the rest of the body. Magnification is required to see a couple of spines on the back edge of the middle section of the body that helps identify this ant from other species. The addiction of the workers to carry their abdomens rising when they are disturbed is likely the best way to recognize this species.
Acrobat ants may nest both outside and indoors. Outdoor nests are most often in dead and decaying timber like logs, stumps, dead trees limbs, firewood and hollow tree cavities. They may nest in damp soil beneath leaf litter or rocks. The small worker ants readily enter buildings through crevices around windows and doors and various openings. Trails of workers may be seen moving between the nest and a food source. Acrobat ants feed on a mixture of foods, including other insects and sweets.
When acrobat ants nest indoors they are commonly inside wood or cavities kept moist with water from leaks. They can also nest in foam insulating board or sheathing. As they excavate the large galleries used as nest sites, sawdust may well be deposited near the nest area.
How to Get Rid of Acrobat Ants?
According to a Pest Control company in St. Louis, acrobat ants entering from outdoors may be managed by sealing the external fractures through which they enter, using a residual insecticide barrier along the foundation, or by treating the ant nest if the location can be established through careful inspection and observation.
Ant colonies living within the walls ought to be treated by eliminating any moisture problems (if present) and by injecting household insecticide spray or dust into infested wall voids. An exterminator may take care of this or for small problems, you can do it yourself. It might be essential to drill small holes to achieve this treatment.
Insecticides containing pyrethroids are available to homeowners for outdoor use. Always follow labeled directs.
Call at your local retailer to find a ready-to-use insecticide labeled for ants. Read and follow the directions on the label.