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.
Detailed Description: 2 mm (1/12 in) long, monomorphic (one-sized) worker force. Two-segmented petiole. Twelve-segmented antennae with three-segmented club. Each segment of antennal club increasing in size toward the end of the club. Head, thorax and petiole dull. Gaster, clypeus, and mandibles shiny. Subfamily Myrmicinae.
Most Common Complaints: Ants trailing throughout home, especially counters, cabinets, bathrooms, and floors. Often gnaw their way into packaged foods. Indoor nests best controlled by baits.
Flight Season: No flights, reproduction by budding only.
Distribution: Known
from Alachua, Brevard, Broward, Charlotte, Collier, Dade, Escambia,
Highlands, Hillsborough, Lake, Lee, Manatee, Monroe, Nassau, Okeechobee,
Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Sarasota, Seminole,
St. Johns and Volusia Counties, but probably present in all counties.
Nest Sites & Characteristics: Multiple queens and multiple subcolonies. 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.
Diet: Living and dead insects. Forage for sweets, fats, and proteins inside.
