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If you are reading this, you probably searched the exact keywords used in the article title. Tiny fast black ants, one day they just show up like uninvited in-laws. They start with one or two little strays that you can easily sweep up and get rid of, but then they just keep coming.
These tiny black ants are called by many names:
At the end of the day they are just “annoying ants”.
They don’t bite or sting. They just get into and all over everything. And like the name implies, they are searching for sweets. The individual ants are scouts. Any tiny pebble of sugar will be enough to call in the rest of the gang.
They reproduce in massive numbers and often have several queens in their nest. They can travel within your walls, under doorways or in your attic. They are very good at getting into your place. So what can you do?
Number one is obvious: don’t give them any reason to stick around. If you keep your place immaculate then you have nothing to worry about. But this is often not the case. Microscopic food droppings happen.
Number two: you can buy ant bait in the store. These can really work and are worth a try. You leave the bait out and they will take the poison back to the nest. With any luck you kill the nest, but at the very least they know your place is off limits.
The final and third solution is calling for a monthly pest service. The pest control agent will identify any and all pest problems you may have and craft a plan that fits your needs.
These little monsters are farming a scale insect on my new 2 year old tree! I sprayed the scale and nicked it down but the spray had no effect on the ants. I used granular Lorsban on them and I can’t see that it effected them at all. What can I use that effective on them?
You can try the liquid ant baits that come in the small plastic container. Place it near the area where they are active. If that doesn’t work we can get a pest control specialist out to you. Let us know. ~ Brad
These ants are only the size of two grains of black pepper and unless you magnify them you can’t tell they are ants
I have the exact same problem. Live in So. Calif.
Cannot find the trail or the nest. They just showed up one day on my kitchen counter and sinks. They run and hide between the tiny gap between the counter top and the lip of the sink under the counter top. They were only on one counter to the right of the sink but now they have found the other counter so it hard to find a spot to prep food for cooking.
Does anyone know how to get rid of this particular ant?
Powerful detergent spray gets them wet and fills their breathing holes. They die, and cleanup is easy, just wipe them up with a paper towel, then toss the wet ball of paper towel and ants in the fire in your wood burning stove. One drop per ant is more than enough.
Thanks for the comment Henry. Much appreciated.
I looked at this little annoying rascal and it stopped moving to make me think it was dead, THEN IT WALKED TO ANOTHER ANT THAT I DIDNT SEE AFTER I PICKED SOMETHING UP TO KILL IT
LOL! Those tricky buggers
I felt something down my exposed arm. I looked more closely: a tiny black “spot” moved ver, very fast. I squashed it. More came. There is NO – No – No sugar in my office. What are
they looking for? DO THEY BITE??? Am I a sweet person?
It could be that you are a sweet person LOL. These ants are very exploratory in nature, looking for the things that contain even the slightest amount of sugar energy source. They send their scouts far and wide.
Wife left some candy wrappers in her trash can in the living room. Unfortunately, the tiny ants discovered this too. I am now an absolute Nazi about eating food and cleaning up after ourselves. However, weeks later, the ants are still scouting and I’m still killing them with everything short of fire or nuclear weapons. With two cats in the house, I have to be judicious in what I use. How often do ants still scout an area even if there is no food present? I’m guessing, too, that their reappearance is due to the fact that I have yet to find where they are coming from. Am I right?
HI Sal,
I would start by inspecting the exterior of home look for trails around windows, any penetrations.
Then baits could be used outside. Hope this helps.
All the above apply to me! Q: how do they get in our sealed microwave and sealed refrigerator???
There has to be a tiny hole somewhere for them to get in. Or they may have rode a food container into there.
I have these tiny ants in my car. I share car seats for my job. Could they have come in on the car seat? How do I get rid of them out of a car? Thanks!!!!!!!!!
I got rid of mine. I bought terro traps for inside the house. I put them on my counters at the back and anywhere I saw them. My pest control guy found the trail outside and treated it with the terro spray. He told me that these little ants have two stomachs, one for them, and one to carry food back to the queen of the nest, once the queen is dead, the nest dies. Goodbye Sugar ants.
I have them now and they are never near any food. I have Terminex 4 times a year and in between if needed and this hasn’t happened I think for like 5 yrs. What are they??
Probably very desperate sugar ants.
I recently moved into a new apartment in May. Saw a few in/around my sink then they vanished. Now i see them on the wall near the door, and in and around sink again. And to make matters worse, it seems the shower upstairs is not sealed properly in the middle of the wall and they were coming from the shower wall!! I know their just ants, but their fast, play dead and honestly give me the ick where I do not want to cook in my kitchen. I’ve laid traps on my counters and also one in the shower. I’ve sprayed the outside apartment doors and even in the door jams with Orthro (I believe) I’ve tried vinegar and water, i do have animals so im cautious as to what i spray. but WHY. why is this happening, and do they die in winter?
If you have tried your own DIY approach and it isn’t phasing them then perhaps you should consider professional pest control. This is why companies like ours exist. We are experts in dealing with hard-to-fix pest problems.