There are a few particular types of ants you might encounter in West Virginia. Among the more interestingly named ants in the Martinsburg region are mound, formica, carpenter, fire, velvet and four-spotted velvet. Although they come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes, they do have common characteristics. Their body is divided into three parts; the head, the thorax, and the abdomen, and they have six legs. They have an elbow-shaped antenna attached to the front of their heads. 

• Ants are very social beings. You will almost always find them gathered together in large colonies. Within a colony, each one has a specific job, and jobs are assigned to different types of ants. For instance, the queen's only job is to lay eggs. The remainder of females are workers; they do all the food foraging and clean-up jobs around the colony. Males exist to do just one thing; mate with the queen. Talk about an easy life!
• Ants don't have ears. They hear by feeling vibrations in the structures around them.
• They are incredibly strong. They can lift up to 5,000 times their body weight. Imagine a 200-pound man lifting 100,000,000 pounds. 
• Ants live on all but one continent on earth; Antarctica. How odd that the only place they don't exist actually bears their name. 
• They have a sweet tooth. Ants have slightly different tastes when it comes to their preferred foods. Generally, they all like one type of protein or another, and they all love sugar. Clearly, the dessert menu is the most popular.

Although they are small and don't always appear dangerous, they can cause damage to your property and contaminate areas of your home that they infiltrate. Typically, a scout will enter your house to find food while leaving a scent behind for others to follow. In the process, they transfer bacteria to your food and kitchen utensils. Some of the common bacteria they carry are E. coli, Shigella and Salmonella. 

If you see one ant in your home, it's not alone. Chances are, there's an entire colony not too far away. Some will cause damage to your home's structure. Carpenter Ants, for instance, chew their way through the wood in your home. They don't eat the wood; they create tunnels for nesting. 

You may see products on the shelf at the hardware store that claim to rid your home of ants. They're just band-aids at best. Instead, please leave it to us, the experts at Black Knight Pest Control. We will come to your home or business, identify what type of problem you're dealing with, and quickly get rid of it. Give us a call today for a free estimate.