• Pests in House and Home
  • Bedbugs – Bites, Stings and Itches
  • Food Pests
  • DPIL

Pestium.uk

Europe's largest scientific bug site

Danish flagUnion JackNorwedish flagSwedish flagGerman flag
You are here: Home / Pests in House and Home / Animals in foods / Small black or garden ant

Small black or garden ant

Latin: Lasius niger

Black garden ant
Black garden ant

These are the ants most commonly seen on verandas and in the house. They live in the ground, frequently under rocks or flagstones, and they will often penetrate under the house itself, particularly if it has been built directly on the ground.

Ants frequently build nests in the insulation layer and from there they penetrate up into the house itself through the cracks which inevitably appear in the cement.

Garden ants can also build in mouldering timber (see p. 145). In nature, these ants search for flower nectar and for what is poetically known as honeydew but which is actually a sweet, sticky secretion produced by aphids or greenfly.

Black garden ants in bait
Black garden ants in bait

When garden ants get into the house it will soon be seen that they are particularly attracted to sweet substances, such as drops of jam or scraps of pastry and cake. As soon as one ant has found such a delicacy there will soon, as though by magic, be a whole trail of them.

Naturally, of course, there is nothing magical in this. Ants cover a wide area in search of food. When one has found something sweet it can communicate the fact to others by tapping them with its antennae and also by feeding them with some of the contents of its crop.

  • About
  • Latest Posts
Henri Mourier
Biologist at Statens Skadedyrslaboratorium
Author of:
"Pests in House and Home"
"Bed Bugs - Bites, Stings and Itches"
"Food Pests"
"Husets dyreliv" (Insects Around the House - Only danish)
"Skadedyr i træ" (Timber Pests - Only danish)
"Stuefluen" (Common Housefly - Only danish)
Latest posts by Henri Mourier (see all)
    Pests in House and Home
    Introduction
    Houses as animals habitats
    Animal names and systematics
    Arthropod structure
    Arthropod senses and behaviour
    Where do invertebrates come from?
    Arthropod development
    Colour plates
    Animals that bite, sting and irritate
    Scorpions
    House centipede
    Mites and ticks
    Itch mite
    Bed mites
    Prune mite
    Red poultry mite
    Pigeon tick
    Castor bean tick
    Brown dog tick
    Thrips
    Springtails
    Sucking lice
    Body louse
    Head louse
    Crab louse
    Dog louse
    Biting lice
    Fleas
    Human flea
    Cat flea, dog flea
    Bird fleas
    True bugs
    Bed bug
    Bat bug
    Pigeon bug
    Martin bug
    Debris bug
    Fly bug
    Common flower bug
    Gnats and mosquitoes
    Mosquitoes
    Malaria mosquito
    Theobaldia annulata
    Common gnat
    Stable or Biting housefly
    Forest flies
    Wasps and hornets
    Bees
    Chalcids
    Ichneumons
    Where do the biting and irritating organisms come from?
    Prevention of bites and stings
    Invertebrates and hygiene
    Animals in foods
    Mites
    Flour mite
    Tyrophagus longior
    Cheese mite
    Prune mite
    Order Thysanura
    Silverfish
    Firebrat
    Cockroaches
    German cockroach
    Oriental or common cockroach
    Brown-banded cockroach
    American cockroach
    Booklice
    Small moths
    Mill or flour moth
    Warehouse or cocoa moth
    Dried currant moth
    Indian meal moth
    Brown house moth
    Wine moth
    Beetles
    Mealworm beetle
    Tribolium destructor
    Flour beetle
    Rust-red flour beetle
    Cadelle beetle
    Saw-toothed grain beetle
    Merchant grain beetle
    Flat grain beetle
    Biscuit or drugstore beetle
    Tobacco beetle
    Lesser grain borer
    Grain weevil
    Rice weevil
    Nutmeg or coffee weevil
    Common bean weevil
    Hide and bacon beetles
    Larder beetle
    Dermestes haemorrhoidalis
    Dermestes frischi
    Khapra beetle
    Red-legged copra beetle
    Red-breasted copra beetle
    Ant beetle
    Spider beetles
    Australian spider beetle
    White-marked spider beetle
    Golden spider beetle
    Shiny spider beetle
    Housefly
    Lesser housefly
    Blowflies
    Grey flesh fly
    Vinegar fly
    Cheese fly
    Ants
    Small black or garden ant
    The jet black ant
    Pharaoh ant
    Birds
    House sparrow
    Rodents
    House mouse
    Mouse proofing
    Mouse eradication
    Brown rat
    Black rat
    Rat proofing and eradication
    Prevention of damage by pests in kitchens and food factories
    Controlling pests in kitchens and food factories
    Animals that attack textiles
    Small moths
    Common clothes moth
    Case bearing clothes moth
    Brown house moth
    Tapestry moth
    Dermestids
    Carpet beetle
    Museum beetles
    Spider beetles
    Common house mite
    Silverfish
    Precautions against infestations by pests of textiles
    Animals in paper, leather and plastics
    Slugs
    Woodlice
    Silverfish
    Booklice
    Bookworm
    Drugstore-, tobacco-, spider- and dermestid beetles
    Mice and rats
    Animals in timber
    Furniture beetles
    Common furniture beetle
    Ernobius mollis
    Dendrobium pertinax
    Death-watch beetle
    Fan-bearing wood-borer
    Powder post beetles
    Lymexylon navale
    Bostrychid beetles
    Weevils
    Pine weevil
    Bark beetles
    Ash bark beetle
    Ambrosia beetles
    Trypodendron
    Longhorn beetles
    Callidium violaceum
    Phymatodes testaceus
    House longhorn
    Tetropium luridum
    Pine sawyer
    Leptura rubra
    Criocephalus rusticus
    Gracilia minuta
    Chlorophorus annularis
    Clytus arietis
    Wharfborer
    Wood wasps
    Ametastegia glabrata
    Small black or garden ant
    Jet black ant
    Hercules ant
    Goat moth
    Dermestid larvae
    Spider beetle larvae
    Woodlice
    Termites
    Woodpeckers
    Mammals
    Chalcids
    Opilo domesticus
    Ant beetle
    Exit-holes in timber
    Prevention of attacks by timber pests
    Control of timber pests
    Fungus in timber
    Animals in masonry and insulation
    Davies’s Colletes
    Animals in thatch
    Caredrina clavipalpis
    Animals that gnaw metal
    Animals that merely live in the house
    Slugs
    False scorpion
    Harvestmen
    Spiders
    Common house spider
    Steatoda bipunctata
    Ciniflo fenestralis
    Zygiella x-notata
    Zebra spider
    House cricket
    Empicoris culiciformis
    Fungus beetles
    Wasps
    Bees
    Honey bee
    Bumble bees
    Solitary bees
    Patchwork leafcutter
    Mason bee
    Aphomia sociella
    Bathroom fly
    Birds
    Swallow
    House martin
    Swift
    House sparrow
    Rock dove
    Jackdaw
    Kestrel
    Owls
    Bats
    Beech marten
    Animals that come inside for the winter
    Lacewing
    Cluster fly
    Musca autumnalis
    Thaumatoniyia notata
    Gnats and mosquitoes
    Theobaldia annulata1
    Common gnat
    Butterflies
    Seven-spotted ladybird
    Wasps
    Mice
    House mouse
    Yellow-necked mouse
    Occasional visitors
    Grey worm
    Woodlice
    Centipedes
    Lithobius forficatus
    Geophilus carpophagus
    House centipede
    Millipedes
    Bryobia praetiosa
    Gamasid mites
    Springtails
    Thrips
    Earwig
    Dusky cockroach
    Cone bug
    Carabus nemoralis
    Devil’s coach-horse
    Black vine-weevil
    Cis boleti
    Hoverfly
    Drone fly larva
    Crane fly
    Faeces
    Footprints
    Scent
    Sounds
    On pests in general
    Prevention
    Methods of treatment in pest control
    Risks of using poisons
    Resistance
    Where to go for further guidance
    Index

    Copyright © 2023 · The publisher Pestium Inc. · Europe's largest knowledge database on pests.
    Copying and reproduction without permission is prosecuted without prior notice