More than 40 ant species have been identified in Manhattan alone, and the ones that end up in your apartment or building are a specific handful each requiring a different approach to eliminate effectively.
Pavement ants are the most common call we get across Brooklyn and Queens. They nest under sidewalks and foundation slabs and find their way inside through the smallest cracks. Odorous house ants are relentless in their search for moisture and sweets, and their colonies can contain thousands of workers with multiple queens which is why a single spray treatment rarely solves it.
Carpenter ants are a different concern altogether. They don’t eat wood, but they hollow it out to build nests, and in Brooklyn’s aging brownstones and pre-war row houses, a carpenter ant problem left untreated can mean real structural damage. Pharaoh ants thrive in warm indoor environments and don’t go dormant in winter making them a persistent year-round problem in New York City’s heated apartment buildings.
There’s also the ManhattAnt Lasius emarginatus, a European invasive species first observed in New York City in 2011 which has quietly displaced native pavement ants across parts of Manhattan and is continuing to spread. Identifying what you’re actually dealing with is the first step, and it’s where most DIY attempts fall short.
