Odorous house ants, pavement ants, carpenter ants and pharaoh ants each need a different approach. Spraying the trail makes two of them worse.
Odorous house ants
The small dark ants trailing across your counter after spring rain. Crushing one gives off a rotten-coconut smell. Colonies have multiple queens and split when stressed, so over-the-counter sprays frequently turn one trail into four.
Pavement ants
The ants pushing little sand piles up through driveway and patio cracks. They nest under slabs and foundations and follow expansion joints indoors. Treatment belongs at the nest and the slab edge, not on the trail.
Carpenter ants
Large black ants, most active at night, that excavate galleries in wood softened by moisture. In Delaware they concentrate around leaking gutters, deck ledger boards, window frames and crawlspaces. Finding them indoors usually means there is a moisture problem to fix along with the ants.
Pharaoh ants
Tiny yellowish ants found in apartments, hospitals and commercial kitchens. These are the ones where spraying is genuinely counterproductive - repellents cause budding, scattering satellite colonies through the building. They require a baiting program.
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