Pest Control St. Louis

Acrobat Ant

Latin Name: Crematogaster ashmeadi

Features: Medium sized, mostly shiny ant with heart shaped abdomen 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 stomach up over the thorax. Acrobat ants also slow down than white-footed ants when disturbed.

Habitat: Acrobat Ants are located in the Southeastern United States (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia), but can be located 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 an acknowledged colony, commonly in the fall, to disperse and begin new colonies. The swarmers are harmless, but they may be the first sign of an infestation. Special treatment of swarmers beyond hoovering or sweeping them up is not required.

Outside the home, you will generally find Acrobat ants in an assortment of dead and decaying timber. Firewood appears to be one of their preferred homes. In all cases, the timber they occupy will be dead. The acrobat ant never inhabits a healthy or live piece of wood, that is why they like a few of the woodworkings around your property. They have a nasty characteristic of creating cavities in timber, particularly when that timber is moist. They will even nest in foam insulating material board if weather conditions are right. One way to identify their invasion into your wood 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 about the home. One of these is named the acrobat ant because of the direction the worker ants carry their abdomens above the remainder 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 remainder 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 habit of the workers to carry their abdomens up when they're disturbed is more than likely the best method to recognize this species.

Acrobat ants may nest both outdoors and indoors. Outdoor nests are most often in dead and decaying wood like logs, stumps, dead trees limbs, firewood and hollow tree cavities. They might nest in damp soil beneath leaf litter or rocks. The small worker ants readily enter buildings through crevices around windows and doors and several openings. Trails of workers may be seen moving between the nest and a food source. Acrobat ants eat a mixture of foods, including other insects and sweets.

When acrobat ants nest indoors they are ordinarily inside wood or cavities kept moist with water from leaks. They can also nest in foam heat retaining 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 outside 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 should 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 accomplish this therapy.

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.