Other than ticking me off, do sugar ants do any thing destructive to the hive/colony?
I had some cinder blocks sitting in water. This kept them at bay for the most part. However today I saw what I guessed to be "leaches" in the water. They looked like wiggle tails (mosquito larva) but the biggest one would have made about 25 wiggle tails. It was about 3/8 of an inch long. I poured Clorox in the water thinking that would wipe them out. After pouring it directly on some of them and waiting around 5 minutes or so - nothing happened. I took one out and put it on me and it took to crawling upwards. So I dumped the water and just a couple/three hours later of course I have sugar ants (not fire ants) crawling around on the hive.
well they will steal honey and nectar, for one, which can starve the hive out. Other than that though...they do not tear up the wood like many ants do. They do carry away the bee dead though.