Carpenter ants are a large species of ant. Adults grow to be about 5/8th to ½ an inch in length, and queens grow even larger - up to 1 inch in length.   Most carpenter ants are black, but they can also be red, yellow, or a combination of those colors.  Their body is oval and segmented; carpenter ants have a 1 node waist, six legs, and antennae. The workers have large strong mandibles which will bite!

Pharaoh workers are about 1/16-inch, or 2.0 millimeters, in length. They are light yellow to reddish brown in color with a darker abdomen. Pharaoh ant workers have a non-functional stinger used to generate pheromones.  Pharaoh ants can be found in hotels, large apartment buildings and groceries. Colonies are populous and usually established in inaccessible places in buildings. Pharaoh ants eat many household foods and also damage silk, rayon, rubber goods and insect collections. The Pharaoh ants breed continuously throughout the year usually in heated buildings and mating takes place in the nest. 

Pavement Ants, which usually make their homes in pavements, are small (1/8–1/16-inch long). They are black-brown ants, with paler legs and antennae. The abdomen is all black. They are distinguished by two spines on the back, two nodes on the petiole, and grooves on the head and thorax. The colonies can be moderately large. Swarmers usually appear in June or July; however, they have been reported at other times of the year.

Originally from South America, the tawny crazy ant — also called the raspberry crazy ant — showed up in the southern United States in 2002 or perhaps earlier. Their presence is more than just an annoyance. Because they feed on small insects and arthropods, they're gobbling up food that other species like birds and reptiles rely on. Their presence will trickle up the food chain with currently unknown ramifications — and there doesn’t seem to be much that can stop them.

Argentine ant colonies are hard to miss due to their massive size. Individually, however, Argentine ants are only 2-3mm long, wingless, and range in color from light to dark brown. Males and queens are slightly larger and darker. Infamous for their super-sized colonies, Argentine ants are prolific breeders and even worse, they are aggressive. They relentlessly assail other ant species and use their sheer numbers, often joining forces with other Argentine ant colonies, to conquer and destroy weaker enemy ant colonies.

Red imported fire ants (RIFAs, for short) get their common name from their ability to inflict painful bites and stings. These dark reddish-brown ants are an invasive species found throughout the southern part of the U.S. 

Fire ants will sting humans who disturb a nest. The sting of a red imported fire ant is painful and often results in a raised welt that becomes a white pustule. Often, a person stung by red imported fire ants will receive multiple stings from more than one of the ants. Persons allergic to insect stings will react more severely to red ant stings.