Identification: Ants near the frontyard

[a0john010w]

Hello Community,

My wife and I recently noticed ants entering and exiting our front yard lawn onto the sidewalk and driveway. After taking some zoomed in pictures I noticed that the ants had a really long gaster, wide thorax and a relatively small head. Although, I have not captured and measured an ant they appear to be less than or around 1/3 of an inch (The ant appears small when zooming out). The black ant appears to have brown rings on its gaster, lower legs and antenna. I've also seen a near identical looking ants with dark grey rings as well

The ants appear to live in our yard and we recently reseeded and sodded earlier this year and I did notice some holes in the soil; however, I honestly did not think anything of it (because I did not see any ants). We're concerned that they may be carpenter ants and I've received a wide range of opinions from field, odorous to carpenter (Everyone I've asked could not give me a definitive answer). My little understanding of carpenter ants is that they nest in wood; however, I honestly do not know whether they also nest in soil? I have not seen the ants crawling on our tree and I have not see any in the house; however, I hold this assessment with a grain of salt

I've attached some pictures of the ants. I apologize for some of their quality; the ants were on the move! Any help identifying them would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

[a0john010w]

Below are the zoomed in images of the ants

https://i.postimg.cc/1RD1yw6h/Ant-1.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/m2TJRqBC/Ant-2.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/fbSgBQfn/Ant-3.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/wvh4Y5rw/Ant-4.jpg

[sartwell90]

Those all look like Tetramorium queens except for the last one which seems smoother and more elongate (and blurry) which leans me towards Monomorium.

To clarify, they are definitely not carpenter ants and are all queen ants looking to found their own colonies. If you wanted to start an ant colony you hit the jackpot.

[a0john010w]

Hi sartwell90,

Thank you for the identification. I apologize for the blurry pictures; they were taken while the ants were on the move and the camera on my phone doesn't always procedure clear pictures like the first two. And my wife's phone is no better!

This does explain a lot (and we're grateful they're not carpenter ants). We only started seeing them around a week ago and haven't spotted any ants before that point (although we weren't looking for any either). We did notice that they seemed eagered to enter cracks in the driveway and walkway or to re-enter the yard

This is probably a stupid question... If we've seen 8+ of these crawling around, then does that imply there is a (large) ant colony(s) on our property already? Here in CO the weather has been either very hot or very rainy and cool and we usually see them during the latter

I attached some more pictures; however, some of them are blurry too. Please let me know if you need better pictures and again thank you

https://i.postimg.cc/yYjb6W36/Ant-5.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/wM6QncVX/Ant-6.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/VsDqdtgh/Ant-7.jpg

[Hawkeye]

Any colony of descent size and age (2 years+) will produce queens and males. How many depends on favourable conditions.

[a0john010w]

Thank you guys for the information. I appreciate it