One of the most common household pests in Wenatchee, Moses Lake, Quincy, Leavenworth and Chelan is the Odorous House Ant, more commonly known as the Sugar Ant. They are also one of the hardest pests to eliminate with the use of over the counter products because of their unique biology.

Odorous House Ants are very tiny, about ⅛ inch, and get their name from the odor they give off if you crush them. This odor is actually a pheromone that communicates back to the queen that the colony is being attacked and causes her to reproduce even more ants!

The easiest way to tell if this is the ant you are dealing with in your home is to check their size and the number of ants you see. Once they find a food source you will start to see a large number of them together.

One of the main factors that make them so hard to control is that they have more than one queen to a colony so their nests can grow to very large sizes. They have the ability to nest inside of small cracks, crevices and difficult to reach voids in the house. Additionally, they will often move their nests resulting in activity suddenly showing up in a different part of the house.