Ants in Tennessee

Middle Tennessee has a lot of ant species. Some march the kitchen. Some nest in wet wood. Some sting. Tap the ant that looks like what you found in Spring Hill, Columbia, Santa Fe, or Franklin.

Tap the one that looks like what you see

Acrobat Ants

Small ants with a heart-shaped abdomen they tip up when bothered — that is the “acrobat.” Color runs from light brown to black. Workers are…

Argentine Ants

Slender light-to-dark brown ants that build huge supercolonies — hundreds of queens, continuous trails. No sting of note. One colony can bla…

Carpenter Ants

The big ones. Black, or black-and-red. Pinched waist, elbowed antennae. Flying reproductives in April and May have two pairs of uneven wings…

Fire Ants

Red-brown to dark ants with a copper head. Mounds are fluffy with no hole on top. Disturb the mound and they pour out and sting.

Little Black Ants

Tiny all-black workers, all one size. Native. Easy to miss until the trail is a river on a baseboard.

Odorous House Ants

Small dark brown to black ants. Crush one and it smells like rotten coconut. That smell is the ID.

Pavement Ants

Dark brown workers with fine parallel lines on the head. They nest under pavement and push little sand cones up through cracks.

Pharaoh Ants

Amber or yellowish ants with a darker abdomen. Very small. Easy to mistake for “sugar ants” until they take over a whole apartment stack.

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