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Like all ants, odorous house ants live in social colonies. These colonies
are made up of different cast members (workers and reproductives).
Male and female reproductives are often called winged swarmers.* Swarmers
first appear in the early summer months. Male swarmers
will emerge from the parent colony first, followed by the new queens.
A few days after mating, males usually die and the mated females begin
new colonies.
When a new colony is initiated, a queen lays a small batch
of eggs and tends the larvae that hatch. The adults that
develop become workers and take over colony labor activities. Once a
colony has been established, queens will continue egg laying until late
fall. During the winter months adults are inactive and the larvae slow
their development. In the spring, workers begin to forage and queens
resume their egg laying. Larval development and production increases
so the colony can grow substantially during spring and summer. Colonies
can be very large, ranging in size from several hundred to over 100,000
individuals. In addition, odorous house ant colonies can produce hundreds
of laying queens and thousands of workers.
*Ant swarmers are sometimes misidentified as termite
swarmers. Ants can be identified by having the front
wings larger than the hind wings. Wings on termites,
however, are considerably longer than the body and both wings are the
same size.
 Odorous house ants are very opportunistic and can nest in many different
places both indoors and out. Outdoors, odorous house
ant nests are usually shallow and may be found just underneath the soil
surface. These nests may be found in mulch, soil, debris, logs, stumps,
under stones and under plastic outdoor tarps. Indoors, nests are usually
found in wall voids, around hot-water pipes and heaters, behind paneling,
under carpets or beneath the floor. Sometimes these colonies can become
so large that they eventually bud. Budding is a process by which the
parent colony splits to form satellite colonies. The satellite colonies
remain inner-connected to the parent colony by foraging trails. These
trails provide for the exchange of workers, food, and larvae.
Odorous
house ants forage both night and day and eat many types
of foods. They eat live and dead insects but are also
very attracted to sweet foods. They especially like
the honeydew that is produced by aphids and mealybugs.
Many colonies of odorous house ants tend or herd aphids
and mealybugs to collect the honeydew they excrete.
Source: L. Barbani, Extension Specialist, Entomology;
R. Fell, Extension Specialist, Entomology; and D. Miller, Extension Specialist,
Entomology; Virginia Tech
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