What kind of ant is a piss ant? Why is it called that?

Answer 1

In the United States, any small or tiny ant that infests a home is often labeled as a Pissant or piss ant. An actual Pissant is an ant that lives in certain European forests and gets its name from the odor produce by its nesting material - pine straw and pine needles. Middle English pissemyre : pisse, urine (from the smell of the formic acid that ants secrete); piss + mire, ant (probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Danish myre).

Small indoor ant infestations (those commonly called piss ants, sugar ants) can be any of a variety of small ants. Pharaoh Ants, Ghost Ants, White-Footed Ants, Odorous House Ants, Crazy Ants and other small ants are often the number one pest control problem in certain areas of the country. On the west coast of the United States, Argentine Ants are a major concern.

Answer 2

Piss Ants

Answer 3

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RE:
What kind of ant is a piss ant? Why is it called that?

Answer 4

A piss ant is a a slang phrase for an ant that will bite the piss out of you, like a fire ant. I'm serious.

Answer 5

Here you go.....

Pissants, Piss Ants
Small, Nuisance Ant Infestations
Odorous Ants, Piss Ants, Sugar Ants
In the United States, any small or tiny ant that infests a home is often labeled as a Pissant or piss ant. An actual Pissant is an ant that lives in certain European forests and gets its name from the odor produce by its nesting material - pine straw and pine needles. Middle English pissemyre : pisse, urine (from the smell of the formic acid that ants secrete); piss + mire, ant (probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Danish myre).

Small indoor ant infestations (those commonly called piss ants, sugar ants) can be any of a variety of small ants. Pharaoh Ants, Ghost Ants, White-Footed Ants, Odorous House Ants, Crazy Ants and other small ants are often the number one pest control problem in certain areas of the country. On the west coast of the United States, Argentine Ants are a major concern.

Each ant species has different characteristics that must be examined before deciding on pest control methods. Most small ants can easily detect insecticide materials in ant bait, making an ant bait program ineffective. Pharaoh Ants, on the other hand, require extensive baiting procedures to eliminate them from a structure.

Ant baits are very attractive pest control tools to many people for various reasons. If an ant population will accept a bait, insecticide sprays and dusts are not always necessary. In many cases the ants seem to accept the bait only to desert it after one or two days. Once this happens, conventional sprays and dusts are often needed to eliminate the ant colony from a home or other structure. Spraying the interior and exterior surfaces of the building with a Cypermethrin product easily kills foraging ants. Using Delta Dust in cracks, crevices, entry points, hiding places and areas such as attics will kill ants and other bugs for long periods and is often necessary for large or stubborn ant infestations.

Answer 6

It's actually one word, "pissant" and does not refer to an ant at all (anymore though it did at one time) but rather

1) one that is insignificant -- used as a generalized term of abuse

It does come originally from a compound "piss-ant" which among other things meant, piss: "very, excessively, to an extremely undesirable", ant: the little bug

Answer 7

I'm a little tangled up here. "Pismire" means "ant," I think, and "pissant," the noun, means one who is insignificant, although I've heard it used more frequently as an adjective, as in "You and your pissant problems." Is there any relationship between the two words, and has the adjectival use of "pissant" become standard?
The two words are indeed closely related; they share one root and their literal meanings are the same.

The older word is pismire, meaning 'an ant', found since the fourteenth century. Most dictionaries still include this as a current term, though it is my belief that it occurs almost exclusively to clue the word ant in crossword puzzles. Be that as it may, pismire is formed from the common vulgar word piss 'urine' and mire, an obsolete word for 'ant' that is ultimately of Scandinavian origin. The surprising initial element refers to what the OED delicately calls "the urinous smell of an anthill" (caused by the formic acid that ants produce) and is paralleled by terms in several other languages that combine words for 'urine' with reference to ants.

The word pissant is pretty much the same thing, but with ant itself in place of mire. It is first recorded in the seventeenth century.

Unlike pismire, pissant is now chiefly used in the figurative sense 'a worthless or insignificant person or thing', found since about the turn of the century. It is also used in comparative phrases such as "drunk as a pissant," in the sense 'extremely intoxicated'.

The adjectival use of pissant to mean 'trivial; contemptible' dates from the 1950s in America and appears to have become common by 1970 or so. It is now widespread. Example: "You are better off without that piss-ant job" (Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City (1984)). The use is common, but whether it is "standard" depends on your outlook. I think that the term is still considered somewhat vulgar, and should thus not be considered standard.

Answer 8

there are these large red ants in australia and we call em piss ants cuz they'll sting the piss out ya.

Answer 9

Because people piss on ants alot, then just picture someone you don't like being one of the ant's down there. hahahaha!!!

Answer 10

There isn't ...it's a slang term for someone or something that is small and unimportant. There are no 'piss ants'.