Black Ant/Garden Ant Lasius Niger
Within a common black ant nest, there will be only one queen and infertile female ants will become workers looking for food. They are seldom more than a nuisance and are not known to transmit serious disease organisms like some other ant species. However, they have a wide spectrum of acceptable foods and sometimes accessing these foods requires walking across unsavoury and unclean areas leading to ants invading houses or commercial premises being considered unacceptable.
Pharaoh’s Ants Monomorium Pharaonis
The Pharaoh’s ant is a species of the tropics and subtropics, believed to originate from North Africa or the Mediterranean area. However, since its first recorded sighting in Britain in the early years of the 19th Century, the Pharaoh’s ant is now found widely throughout the British Isles in suitably warm buildings.
Unlike the common black ant, Pharaoh’s ants are an indoor species in the UK and are particularly associated with hospitals, prisons and other institutions and increasingly in large urban areas.