Ants find direct route into Union Beach, NJ kitchen

Recently, I conducted a periodic servicing for one of our home protection plan customers in Union Beach, NJ. The homeowners informed me that they had noticed some small ants in the foyer leading to their front door. With ant infestations, I like to start my inspection with the home’s exterior perimeter to locate any foraging ant trails. Inevitably, there is an ant nest nearby the home and it’s only a matter of time before foraging ants make their way inside. I immediately noticed a cluster of small ants merrily trailing along the front patio and walkway. Just as a suspected. These homeowners were dealing with odorous house  ants.

Ants are the most common nuisance pest faced by homeowners, and one of the most common ant species that invade homes are the odorous house ant — small dark brown or black ants that emit a foul odor that smells like rotten coconuts when their bodies are crushed.  These ants construct shallow nests in the soil, usually under lawn debris, wood piles, and under brick pavers. Although they nest outdoors, they can move their nests inside homes. I’ve found their nests, for example, in plumbing traps and structural voids. Even though these ants are small, their colonies can be quite large. With odorous ants, we often find multiple satellite nests with more than one egg-producing queen.

I showed the homeowners the trail of ants heading into their house. Most ants leave a scent trail of pheromones, which I like to think of as chemical breadcrumbs, for other ants to follow. By their very nature, ants will follow the same route to food sources over and over again. These social insects like the same routine. To treat this infestation, I applied a sugar bait to the interior foyer area as well an exterior perimeter treatment. Outside, I made sure to thoroughly treat the trails and the soil area from which they were emerging. This product is carried back and spread among the members of the nest. With ant infestations, the colony and the queen must be eliminated. Simply killing a few foraging ants does little to resolve the infestation. The homeowners where pleased that I was able to resolve this infestation before the ants had a chance to venture any farther into their home.