Pavement Ant & Odorous House Ant Control in Scarsdale

Pavement ants (Tetramorium caespitum) are small — 2.5 to 3mm — and establish colonies beneath pavement, concrete slabs, and foundations throughout Westchester. In spring and early summer, they forage aggressively indoors for carbohydrates and proteins, entering through the smallest gaps in foundation walls, expansion joints, and where utility lines penetrate the slab. A single pavement ant colony can contain 3,000–5,000 workers; multiple colonies sometimes merge during peak foraging season, producing the large, visible "ant trails" homeowners see crossing kitchen floors.

Odorous house ants (Tapinoma sessile) are similarly small and often confused with pavement ants. They get their name from the faint rotten-coconut odor released when crushed. Odorous house ants nest in wall voids, under flooring, and in insulation near moisture — and they are notoriously difficult to eliminate with repellent sprays, which cause the colony to "bud" into multiple satellite colonies rather than dying.

The reason most ant treatments fail is product choice, not application quality. Repellent sprays — the kind sold in hardware stores and used by many conventional pest services — kill foragers on contact but leave the colony intact. When workers stop returning, the queen interprets this as a threat and accelerates reproduction and budding. The result is more ants in more locations. Our approach uses slow-acting gel baits that workers carry back to the colony, where the active ingredient reaches the queen and brood — eliminating the colony rather than temporarily disrupting it.

For persistent or structural-level ant pressure, our Home Protection Plan includes ant control as part of year-round coverage with unlimited service calls. For a comparison of ant species common in Westchester, our guide on identifying carpenter ants covers the visual differences between pavement ants, odorous house ants, and carpenter ants — each requiring a different treatment approach.