How to Get Rid of Sugar Ants

Have you ever heard someone exclaim, what’s a picnic without ants? When you live in the Garden State, you’ve many opportunities to picnic in the beautiful surroundings. Unfortunately, a legion of tiny pests may crash your party and even invade your home. A common invader you may encounter in your New Jersey home and garden is pavement ants. You may know them by their local name: sugar ants. Don’t let their name fool you because a sugar ant infestation is anything but sweet. These tiny insects aren’t native to our continent, according to entomologists. They originated in Europe and probably came over to America in cargo ships during the 18th-19th centuries. Today, sugar ants have spread all over the country, especially the New England states. So how to get rid of sugar ants if you see them in your house?

Coping with mooching vermin at an outdoor picnic is one thing but having them infest your home is another. When you get “ants in your pants” and throughout your home, what do you do? Learning more about sugar ants can reveal ways of keeping them outside where they belong and how to get rid of sugar ants if they breach your line of defense.

Tetramorium caespitum is the scientific name for New Jersey’s most common ant, the sugar ant. They got the nickname because of their voracious sweet tooth and fondness for high-sugar and protein foods. They also like to burrow and make tiny dirt mounds in pavement cracks, so many people call them pavement ants.

The problem is that they often nest close to a food source. What could be a more perfect smorgasbord than human houses? Your first step in avoiding a sugar ant infestation is to know how to identify them correctly.

How to Get Rid of Sugar Ants: What to Look For

Physical Features

According to the National Wildlife Federation, sugar ants are among the world’s estimated 12,000 ant species. Like all their ant relatives, sugar ants are insects with three body parts and six legs. They are approximately 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch long. Although these bitty critters can bug you, they aren’t actual bugs.

How to get rid of sugar ants in your home

Eyes

Like most insects, sugar ants have a pair of compound eyes, one on each side of their head. These multifaceted eyes don’t see well, but they can quickly detect motion. Their set of simple eyes, called ocelli, are in the center of their foreheads and detect light.

Antennae

The pair of antennae protruding on each side of sugar ants’ heads are their lifeline to the world. You’ll notice that these antennae never stop wiggling and waving. These provide the ant’s sense of taste, smell, and touch, and they’re hinged in the middle.

Mandibles

Another essential feature of sugar ants is their powerful mandibles or jaws. They are on either side of the ant’s almost invisible mouth. They use their mandibles for daily tasks like carrying, crushing, cutting, and digging.

Sugar ant mandibles are also formidable weapons against predators and prey. They act like strong vice grips that help them pinch, fight, and hunt. If you’ve ever had one crawling on your hand, you can feel their small pinch ever so slightly.

Color

Sugar ants depend on natural camouflage to keep them safe in their tiny world. They are usually dark brown to almost black, and they have a shiny abdomen. The sides of their head and thorax have tiny grooves, called striations.

Habitat

Since all ants are minuscule, they usually choose safe, secluded places to build their nests. Sugar ants that live in the forests and fields of places like New Jersey often burrow under rocks and plant debris. As their other common name suggests, sugar ants/pavement ants often burrow and nest between pavement cracks.

These bitsy insects aren’t as problematic when they stay outdoors as nature intended. However, their insatiable hunger for sweet foods often leads them into human abodes. They are just as content to be squatters in your house and rob your pantry while you and your family are sleeping. That’s why learning how to get rid of sugar ants is beneficial.

Sugar ants live socially like bees and their other ant cousins. They have a strict caste system, including female workers, male drones, and queens. Depending on nest size, sugar ant colonies can range from hundreds to thousands of workers.

Larger colonies may have more than one queen. The same scenario exists in a home infestation. Your home may be overrun by more than one colony of sugar ants.

Behaviors

Sugar ants generally have a mild temperament if they’re not threatened. Worker ants spend their time foraging for food, cleaning the nest, and defending the colony. Nursemaid workers care for the eggs and babies while chambermaid workers tend to the queen. The drones’ only purpose is to mate with the queen.

Hundreds or even thousands of warrior workers storm the invader if the colony is threatened. They can crush other small insects with their powerful jaws or sting them to death. Fortunately, their stingers are too minute to pierce human skin, so you don’t have to worry about their stingers.

Diet

Sugar ants are mainly nocturnal foragers, and they prefer sweet snacks like nectar and decaying fruits. They will also hunt and kill other insects and eat them, such as tiny caterpillars, termites, and other ants. If their food is scarce, they will forage in your garden and nibble and destroy plant roots.

These insects have a fascinating symbiotic relationship with plant aphids. Worker ants guard and protect aphids that are sucking nectar from flowers and other plants. The aphids share their sweet nectar with the ants as the ants gently caress them, so both benefit from this partnership.

Stages of Life

During the fall, winged queens, and drones mate mid-air. It’s the drone’s only function in life, and they will die within a few days. The impregnated queen returns to the colony, where chambermaid workers serve her in her chambers. She will painlessly lose her temporary wings.

As spring warms the air, the queen lays her eggs, ranging anywhere from five to sixty in total. Larger colonies with multiple queens can have hundreds of eggs in the nursery. After an incubation period of between seven to 14 days, the eggs will hatch into helpless, caterpillar-like larvae.

Nursemaid workers continue guarding the larvae, which includes feeding and cleaning them as needed. The little ones have a ravenous appetite and molt their skins as they grow. In a month’s time, they’ll metamorphosize into pupae.

The pupae look more like adults except for their inwardly folded antennae. A thin, dark cocoon covers them. They will emerge from their cocoons in another month as a fully developed adult sugar ant.

Some are sterile female workers, some are male drones, and some will be queens. They’ll instinctually follow their caste role without any help. Although the drones soon die after mating, workers can live up to seven years, and queens can live 15 years.

Dealing With An Infestation

If sugar ants can’t find the food they need outside, they’re not above invading your New Jersey home. All it takes is a couple of worker ants to scurry through cracks or crevices in your foundation, door jams, or window frames. They have incredible tracking skills and can sense the goodies you’re hiding in your cupboards and pantry.

As they return to the nest after their nocturnal burglary, they leave a microscopic chemical trail for their sister workers. Now, the whole colony has a road map to your place, and they’ve found a new home. They’ll hide in any crack or crevice in your house and continue to multiply into a total food-devouring infestation.

Sugar ants’ bites and stings are so tiny and insignificant that they usually don’t bother most people and pets. However, some individuals may be sensitive and have an allergic reaction that could be dangerous. It’s uncommon, but it’s still a possible health hazard.

Another danger of a sugar ant infestation is food contamination. Think of the countless germs and viruses that cling to their bodies as they scurry through the rubble, garbage, and filth. They can transfer it to any surface in your home they touch and contaminate it.

They may be tiny, but their powerful jaws can slowly chew through paper, plastic, and even wood. Sugar ants can gnaw through food containers and contaminate them with hazardous germs such as E. coli and salmonella. If you’re struggling on how to get rid of sugar ants on your own, it’s time to call in a professional.

Being Proactive and Keeping Ants at Bay

Avoid sugar ant infestations by keeping foliage trimmed away from your foundation. Inspect your foundation and porch and seal any holes, cracks, or crevices. Seal door jambs and window seals and keep outdoor trash cans closed and away from your house.

Wipe up any spills as soon as they happen on the kitchen counter and floors. Don’t allow dirty dishes to pile up or leave food open on the table. Keep your pantry ant-free and store food in glass or metal containers.

If you live in the Garden State, you’re bound to deal with sugar ants at some point. Proactively protecting your home is your best defense against these sweet-hungry pests. However, infestations can still happen, and a professional exterminator in New Jersey can get rid of the ants and return your peace of mind.