Pest Library

Characteristics

Crazy ants are small workers that are about 1/8 inch or 3 mm in size. Its body has long coarse hairs and can be identified by its extremely long legs and antenna. Their name was taken from their characteristic of erratically runningwith no supposed sense of direction instead of following a straight line like how normal ants do.The confusion about the name crazy ants, however, stems from their other closely related ant species that are also identified as ‘crazy ants,’ which is why the scientific name Paratrechina longicornis got their common name longhorn crazy ant to avoid confusion between other “crazy ant” species.

Other known characteristics:
• Nest in soil or under objects that stay on the ground, such as potted plants or bags of soil. They can also be in trash piles, rotten wood, trees support, and so on.
• Both males and females have wings. The wings of the female ants are removed before they become mature, while males do not fly.
• The Paratrechina longicornis eat live and dead insects, collect honeydew and seeds, and also forage for sweets, proteins, fats and any other type of foods found in homes.

Habitat

These ants can adapt to any type of home. They can live in very dry to rather moist habitats. Their presence where they commonly forage for food may indicate that their nest is in just some long distance away. Places such as trash cans, refuse, cavities in plants and trees, soil under objects, rotten wood, and the likes are common hiding places for crazy ants.

Behavior

These longhorn crazy ants are known to invade new habitats and compete with other species. In most cases, these ants become the dominant species and will replace all the other ant species found in the area.

Food

Since the longhorn crazy ants can eat almost anything and are also attracted to sweets and protein, and any food scraps, they can be found foraging in the house or outdoors. Their nests are difficult to find because they forage long distances, which makes it challenging for homes to exterminate them.

Life Cycle

The population of crazy ants can be moderate to very extreme since these ants can easily populate any time of the year in warmer regions. Their colony can contain 1,500 to 2,500 ants with each colony having eight to forty queens.

Mating begins when large numbers of males are seen on warm, humid evenings on the outside of the nest entrances while workers patrol their vegetation and other structures. A wingless or deleate queen comes out around the nest entrance to mate. The queen will shed her wings while she is still a callow while the male will mate with her. Although male crazy ants have wings, they have never been seen to fly or even use their wings. Once the queen breaks away from the main colony, she will create her own colony, which is known as budding.

Other Information and Tips

To control the entry of crazy ants into a home better:
• Provide your home with good housekeeping practices and cleanliness
• Caulk exterior penetration zones with the use of weather-stripping
• Provide baits, dusts, and spot treatment with the use of residual sprays
• Removal of harborage like rocks, leaf litter, fallen limbs, and so on
• Reduce the amount of irrigation
• Repair leaks
• Improve the drainage system
• Eliminate or manage food sources, especially honeydew producing hemipterans

In cases that constant foraging occurs and finding the colony becomes difficult, better ask the help of professional technicians to properly identify the ant infestation and search for the location of the colony.

Photo by Forest and Kim Starr, used under CC BY 2.0 / resized from original