Question
I live in Atlanta, GA.

The past few weeks I've been seeing this big black ants around the house. I've witnessed maybe only 5 inside the house but plenty outside the house.

I googled "big black ant" and it came up carpenter ant.

So I assume that is what I have.

Are these dangerous? Should we contact our landlord? we rent the house. It's old as sin anyway and the entire time we've lived here we've had roaches and gnats and other pesky critters.

I've never lived in a house so shitty, to be blunt.

Are they after food? Can they sting??

Answer
Desirai,

In the US any ant larger than about 3/8" is probably a carpenter ant (see http://www.livingwithbugs.com/carpenter_ants.html for a picture of carpenter ants). Carpenter ants are generalist predators or scavengers and pose no danger for us except that ant nests can damage buildings (see the page cited above). Finding only a few ants indoors in spring is no reason for concern, as these are very common ants, but you should tell your landlord. If you find ants "trailing" between the house and the yard this can indicate a nest in the walls and potential damage.

Post a follow up if you have questions.

Jack DeAngelis
http://www.livingwithbugs.com