Pavement ants

Pavements ants are small and dark brown or black, although there may be reddish overtones present. About 3/16 of an inch.  They sometimes show up in homes with concrete slab floors, in basements, or in garages.  They typically nest under the concrete but sometimes push up piles of fine dirt.  They do not damage wood, but severe infestations can undermine slabs and lead to cracks and settling.

On the exterior they are often found pushing up piles of fine dirt between garages and driveways, in the cracks of driveways, walkways, and garages, and especially in between pavers.

Pavement ant control generally involves a very thorough application of a professional quality non-repellent pesticide spray along the foundation, all sides of all exterior slabs, slab dividers, cracks in slabs, around pavers, bricks, or stone landscaping.  This ant is very reactive to repellent sprays and using the wrong spray will just chase them around - and potentially into your living space!

What you see on the surface may be only the tip of the ice burg.  In the video to the right I saw a small trail with about a half dozen ants on it prior to making an application.  The resulting swarm covered almost 50 square feet with as many as a hundred thousand ants..

Unfortunately, there really are no good non chemical pest prevention methods for Pavement ants.  Some areas, such as Queen Anne, Magnolia, Wallingford, and scattered neighborhoods throughout the Greater Seattle area are just crawling with these ants. An ongoing service program to keep them from coming back is a solution that many of our customers have come to rely on.

Pavement ants will nest inside, look for food inside, and they will swarm inside homes.  They will eat sweets, grease, and proteins, including pet food.

Pavement ants are not the only ants to make these types of ant mounds (ejected dirt debris) but they are the most common.  Corn field ants, Argentine ants, Field ants, and others will nest under slabs, Harvester ants will nest in the same exact areas.  These ants are larger and are often red to reddish brown.

Much larger mounds, made primarily of grass, small sticks, and needles are made by Mound building ants, some species of which are referred to as Thatching ants.