Moisture Ants

What are Moisture Ants?

Many times you can see a line of ants making way into your house and invading the damp areas. Your home is most probably invaded by moisture ants that love to concentrate on the wet and moist areas of the house and damage it further. They can be seen near damp parts in walls and in water-damaged wooden flooring or furniture. Moisture ants are those ants that seek out the wet and moisture concentrated areas of the house to build their nests and survive on the source of water. Ants are undoubtedly crucial for the ecosystem, but they can be very harmful to the house. It is not a good idea to let them build their nests inside your home.

Moisture ants are very often confused with sugar ants and carpenter ants. The best way to differentiate between sugar ants, carpenter ants, and moisture ants is by looking at their physical features.

Sugar ants are also a frequent invader of homes in search of food. They mostly remain near the kitchen or dining area in search of food particles. They are smaller in size and do not stay near moist sources.

Carpenter ants, on the other hand, are black or dark brown in color and they too do not feed upon moisture. They usually invade old furniture that is decaying in the house and destroy it further. Both sugar ants and carpenter ants also have white, translucent wings. But moisture ants differ from them both in color, wings, and behavior. These are light brown or yellow in color, find out sources of moisture in the house, and have black wings. Identifying moisture ants is very important to get rid of them in the way that helps the most.

Characteristics

• Moisture ants are typically yellow to light brown in color.
• They are about 1/5 to 1/8 of an inch long in size.
• There is a notch on their back and some hairs around the abdominal end.
• The worker ants are also similar in size.

Behavior and Habitat

Moisture ants, as their name indicate, dwell in places of moisture. They can live both indoors and outdoors based on the source of moisture. They can be living just outside the house and may come indoors following the trail of moisture. If there is a source of moisture inside the house, for instance, leaky taps, leaky ceilings, moisture-damaged walls, floors, and furniture; they can start building their nests and colonies in those places. Outside the house, they live under logs or infest rotten logs. On the whole, these ants need a continuous source of moisture to live. They behave like termites when they invade homes and can eat away furniture and wooden flooring when they are already decaying because of moisture.

However, unlike termites, they won’t feed on fresh wood or extend to the undamaged parts of the flooring or furniture. They just feed on the moisture and the part of the wooden structure that has rotten due to the moisture. In this case, they are similar to carpenter ants that build their colonies inside the wood, but they differ in the fact that moisture ants eat up the damaged wood while carpenter ants just dig through them.

When moisture ants build up their nests inside the house, especially in moisture ridden wooden surfaces, they can be seen to be carrying soil from outside the house to build their gallery.

What do Moisture Ants Eat?

Moisture ants typically eat honeydew from aphids. They can even care for young aphids to feast on the honeydew collected by them. They also eat honeydew from insects like whiteflies, mealybugs, and planthoppers.

Signs of Moisture Ant Infestation

Often house owners can see soil accumulating in basement floors or through cracks in concrete slabs. Though this is often considered to be a termite activity, it is a major sign of infestation by moisture ants.

Moisture ants can make their nests very close to the foundation of homes. When they are living under these slabs, they often push up the soil through the cracks in the concrete while digging their way up. This is one sign you shouldn’t ignore.

Apart from that, if you can see yellowish, winged ants moving inside the house, it is a major source of concern as they may either be living somewhere very close to the house or have built up their colony inside your home. Identifying the moisture ants correctly is very important. Moreover, keep inspecting areas of your house that is damaged by moisture. Survey the house for damp and decaying wood which needs to be replaced whether already infested by moisture ants or waiting to be a source of food and living for them. Houses infested with moisture ants also have signs of wood being digested and excreted by them.

Removal: How to Get Rid of Moisture Ants?

Moisture ants are difficult to remove than mere sugar ants in the house because in this case, they have found their source of moisture and may keep coming back till the source is removed. To ensure that these ants are permanently removed from the house, you have to remove the moisture-damaged areas or the source of leakage. It is easy to remove a piece of moisture-damaged furniture or repair damp ceilings, flooring, and leaky roofs that are apparent to the eyes. But the problem occurs when the moisture is present under the floor or somewhere hidden from the sight.

In such cases, experts have to be called in to inspect the source of moisture in the house and remove the water-logged, rotting material to get rid of the colony of moisture ants infecting it.

You must also address sources of moisture that may not be directly inside the house but just outside or very close to the house. It may be some leaking tap in the garden or rotting piece of wet garden furniture. Check for the areas where the pipes connect to the walls and seal the leaks always when you spot them. Always take care to replace moisture damaged and rotting objects that are located in the garden area, in the backyard of the house or just outside your house. It is also advised that any sort of mulch or flowerbed is kept away from the immediate outer walls of the house.

Finally, it is very important to inform ant control or pest control experts to inspect the hidden sources of moisture in the house and permanently find a solution to get rid of moisture ants. These experts do not only kill the moisture ants in the house but also find out the sources that may attract further ants in the house. They remove and replace the moisture-damaged portions, which are the primary sources attracting moisture ants in the house. At times when the matter is severe, they use chemicals used in pest control measures to kill these moisture ants and prevent them from making a further entry in the house. Chemical control is essential when there is a severe presence of these ants inside the house. These professionals will diagnose the matter and take necessary steps based on the seriousness of the infestation.

Moisture Ants Pictures

Here are some pictures of moisture ants:

Facts

Even though moisture ants may not delight you, there are some interesting facts about them that you must know:

1. They are a fascinating species of ants that build its habitat in places of moisture and yet have peculiar eating habits. For instance, they can raise aphids to harvest the honeydew collected by these aphids.
2. Their swarming season is from late September to October. The female reproductive moisture ant then searches out a source of moisture in some rotting wood or soil and lays eggs. The ants that hatch from the first batch of eggs are the worker ants that take care of the queen, search food, and help in further extending the colonies to other areas.
3. While digesting the food they have eaten, moisture ants discharge a frothy substance which can often be seen in the house and is a sign too of moisture ant infestation.
4. All the worker ants are monomorphic or same in size.
5. A particular type of moisture ant is known as the citronella ant because it produces the scent of citronella when crushed.

Here was all you needed to know about moisture ants, their identification, place of living, behavior, food, facts, and ways to detect and get rid of them from the house. No matter whether there is an occasional moisture ant in your house or you now realize to have seen them quite often, they can be very harmful to the house. With some basic preventive measure and pest control, these moisture ants will be kept away from your house. Always keep checking any source of leakage, damp and moisture damage in the house to stop inviting moisture ants to come and live in your home.