Posted by teresa willia,ms on April 25, 2006

Q: I pulled a paver up (that was next to some landscape timber_) and there were small black ants, white eggs the ants were taking and white ants or termites. Do they live together? There were tiny grooves in the end of the landscape timber.Do I need to worry? I did not see any with wings.

State: Alabama

Habitat: suburban/yard

A: I can understand your concern. Living in Alabama, you're certainly in an area where termites thrive. It doesn't make sense to me that termites and ants would be living together but I live in the north so take that reply with a grain of salt. My first thought about the "white ants" is that they may be newly emerged ants that haven't yet assumed their black coloration. But I'm not positive of this. If you got a good look at the ants/termites, you should be able to distinguish the two by noticing their waists. Ants have a pronounced waist between their thorax (middle body part) and abdomen (end body part) - termites do not. Take a look at one of our units and you can see what I'm describing www.enaturalist.org

Seeing wings only indicates that the insects are getting ready to mate and disperse - both ants and termites do this. If you have termites living really close to your house, I'd assume they could likely be IN the house too but an exterminator can best determine that. I for one am hesitant to call in an exterminator but if you do have any doubts, you probably should do just that. Ants in your house are no fun but termites pose a real problem to the structure. My very best to you and let's hope you were seeing ants and they were outside, not in. Thanks for asking.

John Wiessinger ( April 25, 2006)