{"id":3087,"date":"2012-03-15T10:46:20","date_gmt":"2012-03-15T14:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/?page_id=3087"},"modified":"2026-02-09T12:57:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T17:57:05","slug":"crazy-ant","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/fact-sheets\/common-name-listing\/crazy-ant\/","title":{"rendered":"Crazy Ant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <strong>Crazy ant<\/strong>, <em>Paratrechina longicornis<\/em> (Latreille), so named for its seemingly &#8216;crazy&#8217; behavior (erratic and rapid movement), is quite rare in Maine. It is more prevalent, and more problematic, in southern regions of the U.S., from Florida to South Carolina and west to Texas. But it is also found in residences and warehouses over much of the eastern U.S. (and in California and Arizona), where their preferred food sources can be found in abundance: meats, grease, sweets, fruits, vegetables, and various liquids.\u00a0 They will forage long distances from their nests in search of food, making it challenging to control them (when not knowing where their nest is located).\u00a0 The detailed Florida fact sheet we link to below has a lot more information about them, as well as numerous photos.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Additional Information: <a href=\"https:\/\/edis.ifas.ufl.edu\/publication\/IN299\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>Crazy Ant<\/b><\/a> <\/strong>(University of Florida) <strong>(includes photos)<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Crazy ant, Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille), so named for its seemingly &#8216;crazy&#8217; behavior (erratic and rapid movement), is quite rare in Maine. It is more prevalent, and more problematic, in southern regions of the U.S., from Florida to South Carolina and west to Texas. But it is also found in residences and warehouses over much [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"parent":1561,"menu_order":55,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3087","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Crazy Ant - Home and Garden IPM from Cooperative Extension - University of Maine Cooperative Extension<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/fact-sheets\/common-name-listing\/crazy-ant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Crazy Ant - Home and Garden IPM from Cooperative Extension - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Crazy ant, Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille), so named for its seemingly &#8216;crazy&#8217; behavior (erratic and rapid movement), is quite rare in Maine. It is more prevalent, and more problematic, in southern regions of the U.S., from Florida to South Carolina and west to Texas. 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