Subject: New ants spotted
Location: Southeast Washington TriCities
August 21, 2017 7:54 pm
Have been seeing these larger type ants on my back patio the last 4-5 days and have never seen these before with the reddish abdomens. Have recently been swarmed with Mediterranean Seed Bugs and wonder if there is some relationship. What is the name of these ants?
Signature: Gerry Presby
Dear Gerry,
This looks like a Carpenter Ant, and your indication that you are seeing “larger type ants” supports that identification as Carpenter Ants are quite large. Your individual resembles this image posted to BugGuide that is identified as being in the genus Camponotus Subgenus Tanaemyrmex.
This is a Camponotus, possibly americanus, queen.
Thanks for the confirmation, and for the qualification that this is a queen Ant.