Pavement ant
Tetramorium immigrans
- Identification
- Small (⅛ inch), dark brown to black, with two nodes and faint grooves on the head and thorax. Often nests under slabs and driveways.
- Lifecycle & behavior
- Colonies nest under pavement, stones, and foundations, foraging widely for food. Swarms of winged ants may appear in spring.
- When it's active in Central NY
- Active spring through fall, trailing indoors to kitchens for crumbs and grease, especially in summer.
- Risk & damage
- A nuisance that contaminates food; does not damage structures. Large trails can be persistent.
- Why DIY falls short
- Surface sprays kill the trail but not the nest, so ants return. Bait must match their feeding preferences.
- How we treat it
- Baiting and targeted treatment of nests and entry points, with an exterior perimeter to stop reentry.
Pavement ant or odorous house ant?
Crush one and smell it. An odorous house ant gives off a distinctly sweet, musty odor often compared to rotting coconut; a pavement ant does not. Visually, pavement ants are dark brown to black with paler legs and fine parallel grooves on the head and thorax, and they often leave small craters of excavated sand at cracks in pavement and along walkway edges.
Pavement ants in Central New York
Pavement ants are the default nuisance ant of newer suburban housing in this region — Horseheads, the Lansing subdivisions, and any neighborhood built on slab, walkway, and driveway edges. They nest outside, under concrete and stone, and forage indoors along expansion joints, slab edges, and plumbing penetrations.
Because the colony is outdoors, treating the ants visible on a kitchen counter accomplishes very little. The trail and the nest are what matter, and perimeter work is what resolves it. Spring and early summer are when the foraging pressure peaks.
Dealing with pavement ant?
Our ant control handles it — guaranteed, family-owned, and local.
Pavement ant — common questions
Why do ants keep coming back after I spray the counter?
Because the colony is outside, under a slab, walkway, or driveway edge, and you are only killing foragers. The visible ants are a small fraction of the population. Perimeter treatment and following the trail back to the nest is what actually ends it.