Thursday, September 10, 2009

Ghost Ant

These are the itsy-bitsy yellow and black ants.
I read and I read to try and find what they were and every kind of little yellow ant species I read about that looked like these were European or Asian ants. Then I found about Pharaoh ants and that was closer except that while Pharaoh ants may be little and yellow they do not have the massive, nearly transparent, abdomen.
But finally, after searching for over a week (I know, I must be nuts to spend that much time trying to find what kind of ant is crawling all over the curbs), I found it. I did it! It can be hard to identify some plants and animals, but when they're eeney-teeny-weeney small it's specially hard.
Ghost ants are small 1/16th of an inch on average and have dark heads and thoraxes, but swollen, clearish, yellow abdomens (the antenna and legs are this color as well). They also have really long antenna.

Ghost ants like sweets, but will eat other foods just like other ants as well. They regularly nest outdoors but will go inside to find food or if it's too cold or dry outside. They like moist areas so when they're inside they gravitate towards bathrooms and kitchens and when outside they like dead grass, underneath tree bark, and plant stems.

Amazingly enough these ants only reached Texas in the early 1990s, but has already become a nuisance.

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