The Very Common Indoor Ant Pest That Is Often Mistaken For The Argentine Ant
One of the most common ant pest species in southern Arizona, Iridomyrmex pruinosus, or Forelius pruinosus, as the species is known today, is often mistaken for the highly pestiferous Argentine ant species. Argentine ants are common ant pests in most southern states, but they are relatively less abundant in Arizona. F. pruinosus, on the other hand, is consistently the first or second most commonly encountered ant species by pest control professionals in residential areas of Phoenix. This pest species is also among the top 5 most commonly encountered ant pest species in residential areas of Tucson. While this ant pest does not inflict venomous stings to humans, F. pruinosus workers invade homes in large numbers, and eradicating infestations is exceedingly difficult, even for professionals.
DYI pest control techniques will usually not suffice to eliminate F. pruinosus infestations, and most infestation victims do not bother with such techniques after seeing the overwhelming number of ants an infestation entails. Although F. pruinosus colonies are not as large as Argentine ant colonies, the former occasionally nests within houses, while the latter sees workers invade homes from outside nests. In most F. pruinosus infestation cases, the workers invade homes from nests located near the foundation and at the surface of soil beneath concrete slabs. Nests are also frequently found in exposed soil and obscured beneath objects like stones, leaf litter, patios, wood piles, logs, and around stumps. This species is abundant throughout the southeast and in much of the southwest, but specimens collected from these two areas look markedly different from one another. Southeastern species are usually dark, while southwestern species see workers come in a variety of shades and colors, but most are light in color. Workers are relatively small at only around 1.8 to 2 mm in length regardless of their geographic location, and they form uniform foraging trails that lead into homes from outside nests. When crushed, F. pruinosus secrete a fluid that smells strongly of rotten coconut, not unlike the odor produced by the aptly named odorous house ant species.
Have you ever experienced an infestation that consisted of an unusually large number of ant pests?