Large Yellow Ants

The large yellow ant workers are l/4-inch long and bright yellow. Although they forage at night and are not often seen outside the nest, the worker ants are easily identified by this characteristic yellow color and by their odor, which smells like lemon. The winged reproductive ants are 3/8-inch long and dark brown. Winged ants also have a lemony odor. This species is sometimes called the “citronella ant” because of its odor

Like all ants, large yellow ants are social insects. They live in colonies made up of a queen plus workers and immature stages. Yellow ants feed on the honeydew produced by aphids and mealybugs. Colonies of the large yellow ant are located in the soil, often under logs, rocks, or concrete slabs.The workers mound up large quantities of soil as they construct their nests. Seeing these large soil mounds around the foundations of buildings or in crawl spaces can be quite distressing.

The Large yellow ant is a soil nesting ant. They construct nests in soil under logs, rocks, patio blocks, porches, concrete patios and more. These ants may also be found in open areas of soil. The ants often excavate large amounts of soil as they build their galleries. If the colony is under a concrete slab of a structure, the soil may continue to pile up. These ants swarm nearly any time of the year and swarming may occur inside buildings when colonies are located next to or under the structure.

Sweets, including honeydew they are sometimes found feeding on honeydew from insects infesting houseplants and live and dead insects. Nesting Sites: In soil, forming small craters, especially in lawns. They also nest in soil under stones, bricks, sidewalks and other concealed sites, as well as rotting logs and stumps. They rarely nest in homes.

Life Cycle : April through September. Swarms are also common indoors during winter if ants are nesting under heated concrete slabs.

Management :Management involves locating and treating colonies. The type of treatment depends on colony location. If the colony is under a cement slab, it may be necessary to drill through the slab and inject insecticide into the soil. It would be best to hire a pest control professional who has experience with termite treatments for this type of treatment. If the colony is in the soil, drench the colony with diluted insecticide, labeled for this purpose. Baits are not effective for this ant. For ants swarming indoors, use a vacuum..

Prevention :Discourage yellow ants from nesting near your house by removing logs, rocks, and other items that are close to the foundation or in the crawl space. If the ants are still a problem, establishing a 2-foot wide, vegetation-free zone or band of gravel around the house should keep the ants from nesting next to the foundation.

If you ever have any bug related issues in New York City, feel free to call us either at Beyond Pest Control. Once again, and I can’t stress this enough we are on call twenty four hours a day seven days a week to kill those bugs, we aren’t kidding whether you call us at 9 am or midnight we will be available to take your call and either get rid of the bug infestation, or answer any questions you may have concerning the bug issue. I can honestly guarantee that there will be someone to answer that call. We make it our business to make you bug free!

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