Argentine Ants vs Odorous House Ants

When it comes to pest infestations, many homeowners in Morristown, NJ, often face a similar question: “How do I deal with ants in my home?” Specifically, what’s the difference between Argentine ants and odorous house ants? These two species of ants are commonly found in homes, but they can differ greatly in their behavior, habits, and effects on your home. Knowing the differences between them can help you effectively manage the infestation and prevent future problems. For expert assistance with pest control Morristown, it’s important to understand the specific type of ant you’re dealing with to determine the best solution.

Read More: How Big Are Argentine Ants Nest?

What’s The Difference Between Argentine Ants and Odorous House Ants?

The first thing people will notice about Argentine ants and odorous house ants is the scent they emit. While Argentine ants give off a stale musty scent, odorous house ants can smell like rotten and spoiled coconut. Aside from the smell they emit, there are several characteristics that distinguish Argentine ants from odorous house ants, including their origins, habits, and impact on humans and the surrounding ecosystem. Effective ant control methods can help address both species, but understanding these differences is key to proper treatment. Here are just some of the ways you can compare Argentine ants and odorous house ants to each other:

1) Origin of Argentine Ant vs Odorous House Ant in the United States

While Argentine ants have become fairly common pests in the United States, as their name suggests, they originated from northern Argentina. They are considered the most invasive ant species and can be quite aggressive toward their enemies.

On the other hand, while Argentine ants are technically foreign pests that have found their way to the United States, odorous house ants are actually a native ant species to North America and Mexico.

Odorous house ants have earned the title of an invasive ant species relatively recently, in 2009, following an incident in Hawaii that was reported. Unlike Argentine ants, which are characterized by their aggression at times, odorous house ants are primarily known for their foraging behavior.

2) Population Growth of Argentine Ants vs Odorous House Ants

When examining population growth in ants, a key player, regardless of the ant’s type, is the queen found within the ant colony. The queen ant doesn’t hunt for food and rarely leaves the ant nest, as its main job is to lay ant eggs and keep ant populations up within its colony.

Most ant nest sites have a single queen ant that lays all the eggs for the entire colony; however, in some species, they actually have multiple queens laying eggs, making their colony even larger.

With both species having multiple queens, Argentine ants and odorous house ants can maintain exponentially increasing ant populations throughout the year. In the case of Argentine ant colonies, they are composed of approximately 90% worker ants and 10% egg-laying queen ants.

As social insects, Argentine ants are also known to create supercolonies, wherein one of their many queens will leave the parent nest and establish a new, yet still interconnected, ant nest nearby, thereby creating a network of ants.

Odorous house ants, on the other hand, do have the potential to create supercolonies, but it highly depends on their location. According to Grzegorz Buczkowski, odorous ants are more likely to congregate into smaller colonies in the forest. Still, once they enter the city, they have the potential to grow their colony to have around 6 million worker ants and 50,000 queens.

3) Habitat of Argentine Ants vs Odorous House Ants

As ants, both Argentine and odorous house ants will seek out a place that has a wide variety of food sources available. However, they do differ slightly in where they set up their nest nearby.

Argentine ants, for example, will settle in any location that can be easily accessed throughout your home. This includes damp soil in your garden, old and rotting wood structures, tree stumps, and potted plants. If caught too late after settlement, Argentine ants won’t only infest one of these locations but will also begin creating other colonies throughout the suggested places in your home.

While Argentine ants prefer easy access, odorous house ants’ main concern for setting up their nest is finding a water source. This is why you will find odorous house ants commonly nesting in hot water pipes in wall voids, near water leaks, and water-damaged wood inside your home.

If found outside your home, they may also prefer to settle into wet soil or firewood. Like Argentine ants, odorous ant infestations may be too difficult to remove entirely if they’re treated too late, as there is a good chance that they have already created sub-colonies throughout your home.

4) Food Source of Argentine Ants vs Odorous House Ants

All ant species have a fairly wide range in terms of their food preferences, but there are specific areas where Argentine ants and odorous house ants tend to nest and forage.

To ensure the survival of worker ants and the entire colony, Argentine ants can feed on a wide range of items, including sugary drinks, pastries, pet food, raw meat, and other dead insects and animals. Like other ant colonies, worker ants will hunt for a food source and bring back pieces of food for the queen and the rest of the colony to eat.

With their relatively broad food preferences, if left alone to their own devices with a sufficient supply of food, Argentine worker ants can live for almost a year, while their queens live for nearly an entire decade.

Compared to Argentine ants, odorous house ants prefer an all-around sweeter food supply. They’re known to be attracted to the secretions of honeydew-producing insects as well as anything with a high sugar level. This could include cake, chocolates, soda, and other similar items. It’s also important to note that while they prefer sweeter food options, odorous house ants can also eat other dead insects like the Argentine ants if necessary.

5) Effect on Human Health: Argentine Ants vs Odorous House Ants

When it comes to the effects these two ant species can have on human health, Argentine ants are far more likely to cause harm than odorous house ants.

The first difference between these ants is that Argentine ants bite people, which can cause allergic reactions due to the chemical compounds they transmit. This is not to say that every person bitten by Argentine ants will experience an adverse allergic reaction, but compared to odorous house ants that simply don’t bite humans, they’re more dangerous in this aspect.

Another factor that makes Argentine ants more hazardous to human health is their ability to carry diseases and pathogens into homes. With their habitat choices, they seem to be more exposed to viruses or bacteria, and can travel around your home quite quickly due to the sheer numbers of their colony.

While odorous house ants also multiply at an alarming rate, they have not been shown to carry viruses or bacteria in the way Argentine ants and other dangerous pests do around your home. For this reason, it’s possible to say that odorous house ants have a less harmful effect on human health.

How to Treat an Argentine Ant Infestation vs an Odorous House Ant Infestation

Though they have their differences, it’s good to know that treating either type of ant infestation in your home can be done with similar practices. The most effective way to treat an active infestation of Argentine ants and odorous house ants is to use ant bait or toxic baits, as these kill ants from within the colony. How ant bait works is that the ants will mistakenly take the bait as food and bring it back to the colony for everyone to eat.

Bait is laced with toxins that will kill off all the ants in just a matter of time. With each ant ingesting the toxins, the entire colony is eliminated by the ant baits to ultimately prevent them from re-populating within your home. This is particularly great for Argentine ants and odorous house ants, as their rapid growth often leads to re-population when a weaker treatment or ant repellent is used instead.

For Morristown pest control services that specifically target these types of infestations, PermaKill Exterminating offers professional solutions tailored to the unique needs of homeowners in the area.

Professional Pest Management for Insect Infestations at PermaKill Exterminating

No matter what type of ant it is, insect infestations are never welcome in a home. With Argentine ants and odorous house ants, these infestations can be up to 10 times worse due to their rapid population growth and the formation of new colonies. To treat these types of ants, you need to exterminate them all; otherwise, they’ll simply repopulate and cause future infestations.

For residents in Morristown, NJ, if you’re dealing with an odorous ant infestation, it’s important to contact a trusted odorous ant exterminator Langhorne to get the job done right the first time. At PermaKill Exterminating, we guarantee safe and effective ant management to keep those pesky insects and pests at bay. Using effective materials and chemicals, combined with years of experience in exterminating, there’s no type of infestation that we can’t handle.

Real Story: Excellent Service by Dan from PermaKill Exterminating

We had a nest full of very aggressive yellow jackets in our yard. Dan from PermaKill came in a few days, and the nest was gone! Bees, ants, mice…any time we call, PermaKill comes promptly and resolves our issue. Highly recommend!
– Kim Caroll

Dan’s quick and efficient service is just one example of how PermaKill Exterminating helps homeowners deal with tough infestations. We pride ourselves on fast, reliable pest control Morristown NJ services, whether it’s ants, bees, or rodents.

If you’re facing an ant infestation, don’t wait! Contact us today for a comprehensive inspection and tailored pest control solutions that will keep your home safe and pest-free.