Pharaoh's Ant

Foraging Characteristics

Small honey colored to reddish ant. Gaster may be black at posterior end. conspicuous foraging trails. Conspicuously larger than bicolored trailing ant. Head is not black like bicolored trailing ant's head. Common ant indoors.

Nest Sites & Characteristics

Multiple queens and multiple sub colonies. Reproduce only by budding. Nest inside buildings (homes and greenhouses) and in cracks and crevices. Can also nest between sheets of paper or layers of linens inside houses. Pest in hospitals and nursing homes and may act as mechanical vectors of pathogenic bacteria. Foragers can also be found outside or near structures. An exotic pest found almost worldwide.

Detailed Description

Twelve-segmented antennae with three-segmented club. Each segment of antennal club increasing in sized toward the end of the club. Head, thorax and petiole dull. Gaster, clypeus, and mandibles shiny. Subfamily Myrmicinae.