These are small, dark gray to black ants that are easily recognized by their extremely long legs and antennae. Crazy ants get their name from their habit of running about very erratically with no apparent sense of direction. Colonies most often can be found living in soil, under items such as logs, stones, landscape timbers, wood, debris and above-ground swimming pools. Crazy ants feed on a wide variety of foods, including other insects, grease and sweets. They have been known to feed on the larvae of fleas and flies, and also have been observed carrying away fire ant queens immediately after a swarm.
Major workers have a very large head in proportion to their bodies.
Big-headed ants are most often confused with fire ants, but imported fire ants do not have workers with larger heads. Big-headed ants usually nest in the soil in protected locations such as under rocks, logs, firewood, patio blocks and landscape timbers, although they will nest in open areas of soil. They typically feed on live and dead insects, seeds and the honeydew produced by insects such as aphids and scales. They are considered major predators of fire ant queens, which are present in large numbers after a fire ant swarm. The most dreaded for Texans is the red imported fire ant.