“Sugar ant” is a general term for any ant that particularly loves sweet things and meat. These sweet-eating ants include Fire ants, Carpenter ants, Odorous house ants, Pavement ants, Pharaoh ants, and many others.
Let’s have a look at some of them and find out do sugar ants bite or not?
Do sugar ants bite?
Fire ants
Fire ants are easy to identify due to their typical reddish-brown color. Many of you may be familiar with them. They prefer to live in open, sunny areas like parks, lawns, and fields.
They can be dangerous to you and your children. If you disturb them, they will attack in flocking and sometimes, an ant can sting several times. After that, you’ll feel stinging and itching immediately.
A fire ant’s bite on your skin will be swollen like a small lump and it may turn into a blister after a while. Sometimes, the infected areas can lead to a scar after healing.
If you are bitten by a fire ant, quickly treat the wound that is being swollen by washing it with water and soap. You can also apply ice to prevent swollen bites or use aloe vera-based creams or steroid.
In case you get an allergy after a fire ant attacked you, you had better see a doctor immediately to get proper treatment.
Carpenter ants
One of the most common types of ants you’ll see is the carpenter ant, which is different in sizes and can destroy wood furniture in your home.
This type of ant is typically black, but some have a reddish body. They also can be orange, light brown or yellow.
Carpenter ants can bite, and you would feel like a bee has stung you. A small, red pea-sized spot often appears on your skin when being bitten by ants, along with the discomfort feelings. Sometimes, you might unluckily get inflammation.
The treatment for this ant is similar to the one from a fire ant, which I mentioned above.
Odorous house ants
You can find the odorous house ants with a small size and a dark body, which live mostly inside buildings, flats, and houses. If you squish house ants, they will give off a strong coconut odor. Since they prefer sugary foods and sweets, you may find them rushing across the kitchen counter.
Luckily, sugar ants do not pose any serious threat to humans, and if they bite you, their bites are just slightly sore.
Pavement Ants
The other common species of ant you are about to see is the pavement ant. They live mostly in urban dwellings and around utility holes. The pavement ant is black or dark brown and its body has parallel ridges along their body side.
Pavement ants can feed on greasy food, pet food, dead insects, and sweets.
If these ants look for food, they can leave behind bacteria and other harmful microbes.
Although these sugar ants can sting, they hardly ever do that, and if so, it can cause just a minimal impact. You don’t need any treatment for pavement bites.
Pharaoh ants
This species is particularly tiny and has a light yellow or orange body with some black or red markings on the tummy.
The pharaoh ant tends to nest into wall voids, under house equipment, around wall outlets, under carpets and in some grooves in your kitchens and even your bathrooms.
You can find them among your sheets and clothes. They are one of the most popular ant species nest indoors.
The Pharaoh ants rarely bite, and even if they do, their mouth is too small that you will probably not even feel the sting.
Why do sugar ants come in your house?
Ants from every nest have to crawl outside to look for water and food. These ants called scout ants. They will explore the places that are about several hundred feet from their nest. So your homes are accessible for them to invade through cracks and crevices.
If you leave leftovers, especially sugary food, such as bread crumbs and cookie crumbs or there are any insect carcasses in your house, ants are not difficult to find the way to your home.
How to get rid of sugar ants?
Currently, you may have the answer for your question: “do sugar ants bite?”, but another problem is: how to get rid of them? let’s figure it out together
Cleaning after each meal
Keep your floors clean by sweeping or vacuuming food and crumbs from the floor after eating. Also, you need to wash the dishes after every meal because dirty dishes can attract a lot of ants.
One more thing, take the garbage out daily will help to deter sugar ants coming to your house.
Using home remedies
You can try to spray white vinegar and water or lemon water on visible ants. If you can identify the place where ants enter your home, spray this liquid on. This way will help to discourage their returning.
Applying insecticides
To use this solution, you should carefully read all the instruction on the package of the commercial ant bait.
You should use this method when there are too many ants in the house, and they are beyond your control. You will see an immediate result.
The bottom line
So, the answer for the question “do sugar ants bite or not?” is: YES, and the wound will be severe if you don’t treat properly, but others often don’t bite, and you don’t need to care too much about them.
The best way to get rid of the sugar ants is to clean the house after eating. But you can consider using some home remedies or ant baits to get the same results.
