BATON ROUGE — A new species of stinging ant is now calling Louisiana home. Louisiana State University AgCenter entomologists just verified the the first sightings of the Asian Needle Ant in the state. These ants have been in the United States since the 1930s, and are found in more than a dozen states from Texas to Wisconsin, along the east coast, and now, in Louisiana.
Two people reported seeing the ants on the iNaturalist app at two Louisiana parks in August 2024 and June 2025. On June 17, 2025, an LSU entomologist visited one of the parks, collected it, and later confirmed it was an Asian Needle Ant by using a microscope at 40x to 60x magnification.
LSU entomology assistant professor, Dr. Aaron Ashbrook, said Louisiana seems like a likely location to have this type of ant.
“It was kind of surprising that we had not documented it prior to these reports submitted by iNaturalist,” Dr. Ashbrook said. “The Asian Needle Ant was initially reported towards the end of last year, and we had not had had an ant survey in the state since I believe 2005. So because of that, they could have been introduced earlier. We just never really looked for it.”
Dr. Ashbrook believes the Asian Needle Ant was likely introduced through trade, or by somebody moving to Louisiana from a state that already had the ants.
Stinging, invasive, and cryptic
Asian Needle Ants are a medium-sized, slender ant and are black to dark brown in color, with light brown legs, mandibles, and antennae. Their ant colonies are typically small in numbers, with up to a few thousand individual ants in large colonies. This ant species inhabits forested areas, and likes wet logs and soil.
“Asian Needle Ants prefer to eat termites. So they’re kind of a termite specialist ant, and so because of that, people might not encounter them as regularly,” Dr. Ashbrook said.
The sting is reported to be similar to that of a honeybee, and people who are allergic to stings may have a life-threatening anaphylactic response if stung by the ant.
“In that case, they will require hospitalization and medical assistance if they don’t have an EpiPen,” said Dr. Ashbrook.
Dr. Ashbrook notes that these ants are not very aggressive, and won’t come after someone the way a fire ant would.
“When I collected the ants myself, it ran away from me,” Dr. Ashrbook said. “Now, that doesn’t mean that individuals shouldn’t be cautious about them. You know, if you wore leather gloves while working with wet wood or digging in wet soil, that would protect you from the ants.”
Dr. Ashbrook encourages anyone who thinks they have Asian Needle Ants in their area to report them so experts can come out and collect specimens.
“The only reason we were able to actually find these ants in Louisiana is because of the individuals that submitted those reports. So it’s really important that we have this kind of participation in helping individuals find invasive species in locations around the US,” Dr. Ashbrook said.
You can use sites and apps like iNaturalist and Citizen Science to share any reports of Asian needle ants where you live.
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