11 Types of ANTS found in New Jersey!
There are dozens of ant species that live in New Jersey!
Trying to list them all would be impossible. 🙂
Below are the most common and abundant types of ants, which are part of the insect family Formicidae.
11 ANT SPECIES in New Jersey:
#1. Eastern Black Carpenter Ant
- Camponotus pennsylvanicus
- Adults are dull black and have distinctive white or yellowish hairs on their abdomens.
- The largest workers are 0.2-0.6 inches (0.5-1.6 cm) long.
- Non-worker reproductive males and females have wings.
Black Carpenter Ants are one of the most common ants in New Jersey.
You can find them in grasslands, deciduous forests, and urban and suburban areas. As their name suggests, they prefer to build their nests in wood, often using decaying logs, deciduous trees, or wood structures.
Eastern Black Carpenter Ants aren’t picky eaters and feed on other insects, trash, nectar, fruit, and fungi.
These ants are surprisingly long-lived! While reproductive males usually die shortly after mating, workers may live for seven or more years. Queens can live for over ten years.
#2. American Winter Ant
- Prenolepis imparis
- Adults range from light to dark brown, often with a darker abdomen.
- When viewed from the side, they have an hourglass or peanut shape.
- The abdomen of worker ants is often large and swollen from reserves when foraging.
The American Winter Ant earned its name for its unique ability to move about and forage in temperatures that send other ants into their nests for shelter. When other ants are foraging in the summer, they usually seal themselves into their nests and enter a hibernation-like state.
They may seem insignificant, but these insects are essential to our forests. Many native wildflowers like bloodroot, trillium, and violets depend on this ant for survival. The plants have a calorie-dense appendage attached to each seed, encouraging the ants to harvest and transport them to a new location.
American Winter Ants can also withstand invasive ant species in New Jersey!
This is partially because of their ability to forage at cool temperatures and their defensive capabilities. They are aggressive with other ants and produce abdominal secretions that are lethal to many other ant species, including the invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile).
#3. Immigrant Pavement Ant
- Tetramorium immigrans
- Workers are dark brown to blackish.
- They have longitudinal, parallel ridges on their head and thorax.
Immigrant Pavement Ants thrive in urban areas of New Jersey. These European natives like building underground nests in areas with little vegetation. Consequently, you’ll often see them nesting near sidewalks, patios, foundations, and pavement.
Each of about 1000 ants defends a territory of around 460 square feet (43 m2). It’s common to see colonies battling for territory boundaries, especially in spring, as new colonies are established. The workers also forage for honeydew excreted by aphids, seeds, insects, fruit, and human food like bread and cheese.
Gardeners may be happy to see immigrant pavement ants around their property since they are significant predators of coddling moth larvae, a major agricultural pest in North America.
#4. Odorous House Ant
- Tapinoma sessile
- Adult workers are usually a uniform color ranging from brown to black.
- They have a distinct rotten odor when crushed.
Odorous house ants are incredibly widespread because they can adapt to nearly any habitat in North America. They tolerate various habitats from sea level to 13,000 feet (4000 m) of elevation and occupy urban areas, forests, grasslands, bogs, and sandy coastal areas.
These ants are also commonly seen in homes in New Jersey.
And they aren’t just searching for a comfortable place to live; odorous house ants love sweets! In the wild, they tend to feed on aphid honeydew and flower nectar, but they will gladly take advantage of human food when available.
They often nest outside on stumps, rocks, matted grass, and other debris but use cracks and termite-damaged wood found in homes. Interestingly, these nests aren’t stationary.
Odorous house ants tend to move their nests about every 21 days. They also tend to coexist peacefully with other ant species rather than strictly defend a territory.
#5. Chestnut Carpenter Ant
- Camponotus castaneus
- Adult workers are glossy and mostly orangish-red, with darker heads.
- They have smooth thoraxes, square heads, and abdomens separated by a single node.
Chestnut carpenter ants are one of the easiest ants in New Jersey to identify.
They’re called chestnut or red hazelnut carpenter ants for their rich, orangish-red coloration.
Unlike some ants, chestnut carpenter ants don’t tend to be a nuisance to humans. This is partially because they tend to live in forests and other less populated areas.
These ants like it warm! In the winter, they go into a hibernation-like state in their nest called diapause. They tend to enter this state during the first cool days of fall, much earlier than other ant species. Interestingly, colonies may still go into diapause in the southern parts of their range, like Florida, where it stays relatively warm year-round.
Chestnut carpenter ants have long lifespans once a colony is established. Individual workers can live for several years, and queens can live for over a decade!
#6. Ferruginous Carpenter Ant
- Camponotus chromaiodes
- Adult workers are relatively large.
- They have black abdomens and heads with deep red legs and midsections.
- They have short, gold hairs on their bodies, making them appear shiny.
These ants are primarily active at night in New Jersey.
The workers spend the nighttime hours foraging for food. They feed mainly on sweet foods like nectar, the honeydew secreted by aphids, juice from berries and fruit, and sap from certain plants.
Ferruginous carpenter ants got their name from their preference for making nests under the bark of decaying trees or in rotting stumps and logs, sometimes tunneling into the wood.
Though other carpenter ant species sometimes damage houses, ferruginous carpenter ants aren’t usually a significant nuisance for humans. While they are occasionally found in urban areas, these bi-colored ants are forest dwellers. They thrive in mixed, hardwood, and pine forests where they can find plenty of suitable nesting sites.
#7. Common Citronella Ant
- Lasius claviger
- Workers are typically yellow and less than 0.15 inches (4 mm) long.
- When threatened or crushed, they emit a citronella odor.
- They have 12 segmented antennae, sparse hairs on their heads and bodies, and a single node connecting their upper body and abdomen.
Common Citronella Cnts look and smell like the Larger Citronella Ant (Lasius interjectus), another ant species in New Jersey. Their only real variation is their slight size difference. Larger Aitronella Ants may reach 0.2 inches (4.5 mm) long.
Interestingly, these ants don’t usually build nests themselves. The queens infiltrate the nest of a different ant species, kill the queen, and use the workers to care for the initial brood of eggs. This takes an enormous burden off the queen and gives the colony a jump start. Because of this “shortcut,” colonies can quickly become enormous and spread over large sections of forest.
You can find colonies of Common Citronella Ants in gardens, lawns, open woodlands, pastures, and near house foundations. The nests are often positioned under an object like a stone, log, or stump for cover.
#8. Bearded Carpenter Ant
- Camponotus subbarbatus
- They have a dark reddish-brown head, body, and legs.
- They have a distinctly striped abdomen with light and dark bands.
- Workers are relatively small for carpenter ant species.
These ants usually live in woodlands in New Jersey.
Here, they can find ample places to nest with lots of protection from predators and weather. Like many carpenter ants, they prefer to build nests in decaying stumps, logs, and dead trees. They don’t eat the wood; they tunnel into it. They will also build nests in the ground, usually near stumps or trees.
Since they don’t inhabit or damage homes and other buildings, these colorful creatures are not considered a pest to homeowners.
Bearded carpenter ants are easy to identify by their beautiful banded abdomens. They have alternating lines of light tan or yellowish and dark brown.
#9. Buren’s Pyramid Ant
- Dorymyrmex bureni
- Workers are generally orangish and may have a darker abdomen.
- They have a pyramid-shaped projection on their back and 12-segmented antennae.
- These ants emit a foul smell when crushed. It’s often compared to coconut.
Buren’s Pyramid Ants are partial to recently disturbed habitats. Look for them in areas such as lawns, roadsides, sandhills, dunes, fields, pastures, and scrubland.
It’s also common to spot them near other ant species in New Jersey.
Buren’s Pyramid Ants like to construct their nests in open clearings with sandy soil, so they often place their nest entrance in the cleared zone around a nest of harvester ants. The excavated dirt forms a circular pile around their entrance hole.
If you have fire ants or other undesirable species, these are the ants you want around. Researchers have observed Buren’s Pyramid Ants attacking individual fire ant workers and newly mated fire ant queens. They even leave “bone piles” of their victims outside their nests!
They’re fast-moving and orange-colored, which can be intimidating to those who aren’t big ant fans. Thankfully, these ants aren’t aggressive towards humans.
#10. Northern Fungus-farming Ant
- Trachymyrmex septentrionalis
- Workers are relatively small and brownish-yellow to medium reddish-brown.
- Their heads are slightly broader than they are long.
- They have rounded abdomens.
Northern forest fungus-farming ants live in open oak and pine woodlands in New Jersey. One of the easiest ways to recognize these ants is to look for their nest. When they excavate soil, they make a pile that forms a crescent shape around half of the nest rather than a circle around the whole nest like most other ants.
Their nest is even more interesting on the inside! This is where the ants do much of their work. Foraging workers bring back pieces of leaves and other plant material, which the ants chew into a paste to feed and maintain a fungus garden.
All of the ants in the colony rely on the fungus as their sole food source.
Scientists believe that these ants play an important role in our forests. Their excavation and fungus farming process brings minerals and nutrients in the soil to the surface, making them accessible to plants, other fungi, and bacteria.
#11. Allegheny Mound Ant
- Formica exsectoides
- Workers’ heads and thoraxes or bodies are reddish-orange, while their abdomens are brownish-black.
- The rear margins of their heads are concave.
- Workers are relatively small but may reach 0.25 inches (6.4 mm) long.
Allegheny mound ants build some of the largest mounds of any ant in New Jersey!
These impressive mounds of soil can reach 3-9 ft (0.9-2.7 m) in diameter and about 2 ft (0.6 m) tall, though some historical records indicate even larger mounds.
These mounds serve primarily as protection for the queens and an incubating chamber for eggs and larvae. They have tunnels that may also extend about four feet into the ground.
Allegheny mound ants show a strong preference for open, sunny habitats. They tend to nest on strip mines and ridge tops. They also work hard to keep their territory open and free of brush or other plants.
These ants inject formic acid into trees and shrubs, killing any vegetation within 40-50 ft (12-15 m) of their mounds.
They sometimes form supercolonies in ideal habitats with interconnected mounds spread over a fairly large territory. These supercolonies can contain millions of ants and may persist for decades!
Did you like learning about the ants that live in New Jersey?
Check out these ID guides focusing specifically on different insects and arachnids in New Jersey.
- MOST Common Insects
- Butterflies
- Wasps & Hornets
- Dragonflies
- Bees
- Ladybugs
- Moths
- Stink Bugs
- Cockroaches
- Caterpillars
- Spiders
- Millipedes & Centipedes
- Scorpions
- Ticks
- Grasshoppers
Do you need additional help identifying ants in New Jersey?
If so, check out this excellent ID guide!
Which of these ants have you seen in New Jersey?
Leave a comment below!
