Odorous house ants are very opportunistic and can nest in many different places both indoors and out.
Outdoors, odorous house ant nests are usually shallow and may be found just underneath the soil
surface. These nests may be found in mulch, soil, debris, logs, stumps, under stones and under plastic outdoor tarps. Indoors, nests are usually found in wall voids, around hot-water pipes and heaters, behind paneling, under carpets or beneath the floor. Sometimes these colonies can become so large that they
eventually bud. Budding is a process by which the parent colony splits to form satellite colonies. The satellite colonies remain inner-connected to the parent colony by foraging trails. These trails provide for the exchange of workers, food, and larvae.
Odorous house ants forage both night and day and eat many types of foods. They eat live and dead
insects but are also very attracted to sweet foods. They especially like the honeydew that is produced by aphids and mealybugs. Many colonies of odorous house ants tend or herd aphids and mealybugs to
collect the honeydew they excrete.