# odorus ants



## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

Where do you live, in general?


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## Scott117 (May 15, 2021)

Nik333 said:


> Where do you live, in general?


Southeast Missouri


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

There are some from Missouri here.
I'm not a pest guy, just interested.

This is an interesting idea - 
4. *Ant warfare. *If more than one nest is located, take a shovel of ants from one nest and put it into the other and let them fight it out.



Ants - indoors



Worker ant is just the name for the part of the group that does all the work, including foraging.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

@Scott117 Nice to meet you!

Sounds like you have a normal house with more than one ant colony around it. You likely have at least half a dozen. That's why they appear in different places. Sort of like enemy soldiers from different countries all coming to invade you. 

Abandon the fantasy of "being rid" of them. Won't happen, the earth is a big anthill. But most of them cause no problems, and you're not even aware they're there, especially if they're far from your house. I once counted about 100 ant colonies in a half acre lot. (Mine.) You can get rid of, or at least drastically reduce, the ones near or in your house. 

In general, ants forage in columns from their nest, in different directions in search of food. If they find some, they keep after it till the harvest is over, or something stops them. If they don't, they sally forth in a new direction the following day, or maybe few days. That's why you'll see them, then they disappear, then reappear again. And again, etc.

The best way to deal with them is: (a) accept their presence if they don't hurt anything; (b) bait them and try to kill the reproductive female or queen; or (c) other methods. "Worker" ants, the ones you usually see, don't reproduce; there's a much larger queen that does, and if you can kill her, the colony just dies. Sometimes there's more than one queen, though. Also, you'll sometimes see "flying ants" which are queens and male ants that fly off, make whoopee, with the males dying the females digging tunnels and starting new colonies. 

Baits can work great, but the big proviso is whether you have sweet eating or grease eating ants. The first like sugar, while the second go after flesh, including dead insects. "Environmental" insect killers don't really work well on ants, compared, say, with growth inhibitors for cockroaches. They work a while, then they don't, usually because the poison washes away, or becomes less volatile with time, or interacts with other chemicals in the environment. 

You don't always know, so I'd keep sweet and grease baits on hand for use when needed. Some say Terro works great for both, and I've found it helpful. (Ants getting in cat food for army of cats.) 

There's no one size fits all solution. Hope the above has helped, but you have questions, just ask.


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## PestGuy (Jan 15, 2018)

If you're outside on a hot sunny day, and see absolutely no ants trailing around the foundation, but you are seeing ants inside, then they are most likely nesting inside somewhere. A lot of times you will find them in wall outlets in the kitchen or bathroom, I've also found many nests in the basement, usually trailing along the sills or even squished in between beams along the ceiling. You just need to watch them and see where they are going and try to follow them.


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