3 replies to this topic

[prettycode]

Our renter noticed there're ants starting to appear in her bathroom in our basement. It's only mid-late Feb. and the local ants are already waking up apparently!

 

https://imgur.com/a/JtjGh

 

Any idea? They're about 4 - 5 mm in length.

 

I thought they looked a lot like this Tetramorium colony I caught last summer:

 

https://i.imgur.com/OEUGnWM.jpg

 

...but the workers in that Tetramorium colony are half the size (2 - 2.5 mm) of these guys from the basement.

Edited by prettycode, February 23 2016 - 7:14 PM.

[Ants4fun]

Tetramorium sp. E?

[prettycode]

I think you're right. I didn't realize there could be this much size variation between two different Tetramorium sp. E. colonies in the same geographic area.

Edited by prettycode, February 24 2016 - 9:27 AM.

[James C. Trager]

prettycode - There is a second Tetramorium species, smaller but otherwise quite similar to T. sp E that lives in cities in Missouri and west-central Illinois. So if you're in that region, the smaller one could be T. tsushimae the so-called Japanese Pavement Ant.