What is this pseudo man eating ant?

August 14, 2008 6:21 AM

What is this big insect in my apartment?

Yesterday I found a huge, reddish insect in my bathroom. I reached over to get the bug spray but when I stood back up, it had disappeared. Now I am freaked out, can't find it again, and have no idea what it was.

I thought it might have been a queen red ant; it was about that size (maybe an inch long and half a centimeter wide), reddish colored, shiny, and from what I remember, had three bulbous body segments. I've done an image search in google for "big red ant" and mine didn't look quite like that; my bug's middle segment wasn't tiny, but its body segments were more uniform. It moved with moderate speed (I guess about par with a big ant's speed).

I'm in central Indiana and haven't seen any other insects in my apartment this summer aside from two earwig corpses. I've also spotted two small spiders. I'm going to put out ant traps this weekend anyway, but does anyone have any ideas what this might be? I'm close to blasting my apartment with bug bombs, but I have a cat and it would be a challenge to get her out of there for the day.

posted by Polychrome to pets & animals (10 comments total)

It sounds like it might be a carpenter ant. I think your bug bombs would be powerless against it.
posted by Floydd at 6:35 AM on August 14, 2008

A wingless wasp, perhaps? Here's another picture.
posted by cog_nate at 6:35 AM on August 14, 2008

Termite?
posted by Ponderance at 7:34 AM on August 14, 2008

I have searched http://whatsthatbug.com/ a few times to determine what I have found. Hope that it helps.
posted by scooters.toad at 8:01 AM on August 14, 2008

Maybe you can pick out your suspect from this lineup:
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/ants.html
posted by Ness at 8:03 AM on August 14, 2008

Maybe if you gave us some kind of idea where you live regionally and what kind of habitat is around you that would help identify what's indigenous to your area and how to deal with it.
posted by watercarrier at 8:20 AM on August 14, 2008

It sure sounds like a cow-killer ant (or velvent ant) to me. We have those around our area. Large, bright read and they move like lightning. Incidentally, the name 'cow killer' was earned because of it's painful sting, so beware. You might try phoning your local county extension office or exterminator.
posted by jquinby at 9:28 AM on August 14, 2008

Thanks everyone--Floydd's carpenter ant looks the closest to what I saw. (Although I am gonna get a lot of use out of whatsthatbug; that site looks wonderful).

watercarrier--like I said in the original question, I am in central Indiana.

If anyone has any other ideas or advice on this, though, I'd be really happy to hear it.
posted by Polychrome at 10:17 AM on August 14, 2008

We've used Terro to kill ants in our kitchen. It has worked better than ant traps or anything else. Good luck.
posted by spakto at 11:07 AM on August 14, 2008

If it is a carpenter ant, this sheet from Purdue University Entomology Extension office tells you what you need to do.
posted by bolognius maximus at 2:56 PM on August 14, 2008