Why shouldn’t you touch a velvet ant? Because, despite its name, it’s not an ant at all, it’s a wasp. That should give you a clue. Like other wasps, it has a stinger and can inflict a painful sting. The velvet ant is sometimes called the “cow killer” because it was thought its sting could kill a cow! The sting can’t kill a cow or a human, and it’s not poisonous, but it sure hurts like heck.
VIEW MOREQ. My contractor was doing some work recently, and found a large number of big black ants, some even had wings. I thought ants were dormant in the winter, and could the winged things be termites?
VIEW MOREQ. I put ant bait out in various places in my kitchen about two weeks ago, but I’m still seeing ants. Why isn’t it working? Do you think the ants could be immune to the bait?
VIEW MOREQ. We were told by another pest control company that we have carpenter ants in some roof joists. My husband doesn’t want to spend the money to have the ants exterminated. He says it’s no big deal, that everyone has ants. How much wood damage can carpenter ants do?
VIEW MOREQ. How do you get new ant colonies? Don’t they all have to have a queen to start?
A. Yes, there has to be a queen but some colonies start with only a mated queen and no workers, and some develop secondary queens and move these with workers to new locations. Most of our pest ants use a combination of these three methods which is why they are so successful as pests:
VIEW MOREQ. We have this tiny, black ant that has invaded our house in the last couple of weeks. My son got out his microscope kit and we could see that the ants have a heart-shaped abdomen. Can you tell what kind of ant it is from that?
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Q. We’ve been invaded by tiny ants that run all over the place, in all directions. An entomologist identified them as “crazy ants.” Is that a joke or is that their real name?
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Q. My 6 year old son pointed out all of the ants and aphids on the azaleas by our deck. The aphids don’t seem to be bothered by the ants. He wanted to know why the ants don’t eat the aphids. I told him I’d ask a pro.
VIEW MOREQ. I found some small dark ants in our house and took them to the University for identification. The entomologist said they were pavement ants. What do they do? Are they nesting in our house and will they damage the wood?
VIEW MORE32 Lake Ave.
Worcester, MA 01604
47 Thames Rd Ste 6&7
Hooksett, NH 03106