This is a very small and slender ant which is omnivorous and a native of S. America, it is now well established in the U.K. and Europe in heated buildings and is very hard to eradicate. This is one of the species of ant which does not swarm, instead the ants spread by fragmentation of the colony. This ant is about 4 mm long.

Control of Argentine Ants:

Argentine ants are difficult to control for the following reasons:

All ants are holometabolous (complete metamorphosis), having an egg, larval, pupal, and adult stage. Foraging adult ants are only a fraction of the total colony. Broadcast spraying around the perimeter of the house targets only the foraging adult ants in the colony. Control will be temporary since the colony will simply send out more foraging ants when others are killed.

The colony supports multiple queens if ant populations are large. If a broadcast spray around the house is the primary method of control, the Argentine ant workers and queens will scatter. When the ants scatter in sufficient numbers, new colonies can be formed. The one main colony can split into several smaller ones, all of which have the potential to grow. Thus, broadcast spraying alone can make the problem worse.

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