Photo Album: Landscape Bed Full of Odorous House Ants in Old Bridge Township, NJ
The Trail Tells All
After finding a trail of odorous house ants in the living room, I inspected the exterior of the home and found ants trailing from the landscape bed going up the corner of the house and underneath the siding.
Odorous House Ants
Odorous house ants are about 1/16 - 1/8 of an inch in size, have an unevenly shaped thorax, and emit a rotten, coconut smell once they're crushed (hence the funny name).
Exterminating the Odorous House Ants
With the homeowners permission, I treated the entire living room and the two adjacent rooms with a liquid residual and an ant gel bait. On the exterior, I treated the entire exterior with the same liquid residual and treated the landscape beds with a granular bait.
Gone for Good
Once the odorous house ants come in contact with any of these treatments, they'll bring it back to their nest and share it with one another, including their queen, unknowingly transferring the treatments. The applications then spread like a virus and in a short amount of time, the entire colony is exterminated.